On Friendship & Fluff
by FanPanda13
Summary: A series of one-shots set at various points during and right after the cartoon. All fluff. No technical canon violations (yet), but still mostly Zutara.
1. Chapter 1 - Your Paw or Mine

**Author Notes:**

Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing

**Season 3, Sozin's Comet - The Old Masters**

**Aang is missing. Zuko, Katara, Sokka, Toph and Suki have just arrived on Appa outside the walls of Ba Sing Se, after having followed Jun there in a quest to find Zuko's Uncle Iroh. Sozin's comet will be arriving soon.**

"It's been a long day," Zuko said looking at Ba Sing Se's broken walls as they landed. He felt tired just being here, and he could hear Uncle Iroh's voice in his head: "Prince Zuko, a man needs his rest." But this was the scene of his greatest crime. His worst betrayal. Would Uncle Iroh's voice be the same now? Or had Zuko lost his uncle's trust forever? Zuko cringed thinking about how poorly he'd treated the one person who had loved him unconditionally. "Let's camp and start our search again at dawn," he suggested, feeling the inevitable reunion he needed to have with his uncle creeping up on him like impending doom.

Everyone except Katara climbed down from Appa's saddle. "Shouldn't we get the tents?" she asked, looking down at them. Zuko started to climb up to help her, but Sokka stretched and yawned.

"For just one night? Forget it. The sky is completely clear and it's still warm out here. Let's just sleep on Appa."

Katara looked down and it seemed from her facial expression that she thought Sokka was being irresponsible, but she was apparently too tired to fight him. She shrugged and climbed down with the rest of them. Appa promptly plopped down on his stomach, all six legs spreading around him. Sokka yawned, walked around to Appa's tail and sat down unceremoniously there. Suki followed him, and Appa didn't even move.

"Fine with me if you all want to smell like air bison tomorrow morning," Toph said, catching Sokka's yawn. She crossed her arms together, squared her feet, and quickly bent up a tent of earth in front of Appa. "Good night friends." She disappeared into the tent.

And that left Zuko standing awkwardly with Katara at Appa's side. She eyed him and he wondered if she was thinking the same thing he was: that sleeping arrangements like this were weirdly complicated when people kept saying you were romantically involved. Though technically only Jun and a few playwrights had done that. Still, it made him feel strange about some of the encounters he'd had with Katara.

_Not_ that he'd done anything wrong, he thought, his ex-girlfriend's face flashing uncomfortably through his mind.

Mostly, he hadn't done anything. Katara was the girly girl who took his hand sometimes when he was sad and hugged with both arms and forced him to initiate hugs himself by crying in front of him. They were also learning to fight as partners instead of enemies. He couldn't help the physical interaction in that, right? It was fine. It was completely cool. He was completely cool with it.

Though there _had_ been an awkward moment during a game of hide and explode last week when he'd pulled her close at the waist so they could shelter together behind an ancient wardrobe.

He could still remember the shallow way she'd breathed and how he could feel her diaphragm moving in and out under his hand. It could have been his imagination, but he thought she'd stiffened when he whispered into her ear that their pursuers were gone. In return, he let her go. He wasn't sure what else he should or could have done.

Damn it. The least she could have done is not be so pretty. That would have helped. But she _was_ pretty. Incredibly pretty. Katara was an incredibly pretty girl who could knock him on his ass one minute and glomp him with a hug the next. She was lethal. When he thought about it, he felt almost short of breath.

Not only that, but Katara had only just started treating him like anything other than a mortal enemy. (Well, fair is fair, right? Not too long ago, Katara had been nothing to him but the obnoxious peasant girl who stood between him and the Avatar.) Now they were going to be sleeping side-by-side on a giant bison. What was he supposed to do with all of that? Who was he supposed to put between her and him? Should he pretend like the close sleeping proximity wasn't going to…unsettle…him? Walk around anti-socially to the other side? Choose a paw and leave it to her to figure ou-

"Zuko," she said, interrupting his thoughts - he noticed then that she'd already claimed one of Appa's paws as her bed - "Are you going to sleep standing?"

"Uh, right." He sat down on the paw next to her, speedily deciding that his best option was to pretend like he hadn't been thinking about how awkward this was at all.

She glanced over at him as she settled down on her back, her arms crossed over her chest. "Don't worry," she said. "Appa sleeps hard. Aang does this all the time."

Zuko swallowed, nodded and lay down on his back too, folding his hands over his stomach. "I can't believe how much travel you've done with an air bison as your primary source of transportation," he said, surprising himself as he extended her words into idle conversation.

Katara laughed quietly. "We're frequent fliers," she said, and she patted Appa's paw as she talked. "This guy's been a trooper."

They both looked up at the stars coming out in the sky. Within minutes, Sokka had started snoring. Katara groaned. Zuko rolled his eyes. "Sokka is a master of stealth," he commented, and Katara had to cover her mouth to contain an escaping giggle.

"I was the best field trip, wasn't I?" she asked in a whisper. "Neither of the guys could have pulled off that flawless execution. Aang and Sokka probably both nearly got you killed."

"A few times," he agreed, and she started giggling again. The snoring got loudly erratic and she looked sideways at Zuko, holding her breath and pressing her lips together to hold in the laughter. But when the snores subsided to a normal buzz, she started up again, harder this time. It was contagious, and it was due at least partially to all the stress they were under, and Zuko started laughing too.

She closed her eyes, tucked her chin into her chest and held her hand to her forehead while she tried to calm down. "The prince _can_ laugh!" she said. "All this time, I didn't know!"

"That is not fair!" he said, defending himself. "I have a great sense of humor."

"Uh huh." She was taunting him, but they had been through so much together recently, and he couldn't muster the annoyance he would normally have felt at someone for making fun of him like this.

"You don't know it yet, but my sense of humor is just as snarky as yours," he said, teasing back. They were talking with low voices and he had the strange sensation that he was somehow sharing secrets with her.

"Are you calling my sense of humor snarky?" she whispered, a shrill punch in her voice.

"Yep," Zuko said. "You have an unexpectedly dark side."

"I do not!"

"Uh huh," he said smugly.

Katara huffed lightly. "Oh yeah smart guy?" she said. "Well, you have an unexpectedly good side."

Zuko's heart twisted funny. He turned so he could see her. In the dark, most of her features were hidden, but there was enough light for him to see her eyes as she turned to face him too. She was still teasing, but there was sincerity there under the surface. "I bet we would have been friends if we'd met a lot earlier," he said, the thought slipping out past his tongue before he could think not to say it.

"You mean before you showed up at the South Pole to capture Aang?"

"I mean when I was a kid. Before-"

"Before your scar?" she said carefully.

"Yeah," he said. "I think you would have liked me better then."

"I like you fine now," she said firmly. "And we _are_ friends."

He watched her face. She still seemed sincere. "I guess we are," he said, then he turned again onto his back and so did she, and it seemed for a while that they were both having their own thoughts. Zuko couldn't put a label on it, but there was something about Katara that made him feel good. Maybe it was that she made him laugh.

"Zuko?" Katara asked after a while.

"Yeah Katara?" he said.

She paused. "I'm glad you joined the group."

He smiled a little. "Me too," he said. "Good night Katara." He rolled onto his side away from her, nesting into Appa's soft fur.

"Good night Zuko," she said, and it sounded like she was shifting positions as well.


	2. Chapter 2 - Strength Not to Kill

**Author Notes:**

Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing

**Season 3, The Southern Raiders**

**Zuko and Katara are returning from their excursion, during which Zuko helped Katara find and face the man who killed her mother. **

Zuko never asked Katara about any of her actions. He didn't say anything about how she'd wiped those men off their ship. He didn't say anything about the blood bending. He didn't say anything about how she'd almost killed Yon Rha. Once, after it was over and they were walking back to Appa, she caught him looking at her. It was a sideways stare, but she couldn't tell what the stare meant. Whatever he was thinking, he kept his mouth shut and looked away the instant she saw him looking.

Katara didn't know what to say to Zuko either. She had thought that facing her mother's killer would heal her - that her anger would somehow be washed away. It was not. In some ways, she only felt disconnected and disappointed. There was a subtle shift inside her, but it didn't feel like a good shift. Instead, it was like a veil of innocence had fallen from her eyes. She had counted on facing a monster. Something despicable, destructive and power-hunger. Not an empty shell of a man whose only instinct was self-preservation. Knowing that kind of man existed made the world seem like a darker place to Katara. How was good supposed to triumph in someone who couldn't even feel anything?

Which brought her back to Zuko. For so long, Zuko had been the face of the enemy for Katara. He was the villain. The angry, awful person who chased them from the South Pole to the North Pole, leaving a trail of burning, terrorized villages behind. He was her personal rival and natural opposite, and he'd understood and used her weaknesses to his advantage: employing her mother's necklace to track them and try to entice her into helping him, using the strength he gained with the rising sun to defeat her at her weakest and take Aang away, and finally getting under her skin in Ba Sing Se by appealing to her compassion. The last had been the worst. She'd let her guard down with him for just a few minutes, and he'd betrayed her. She would never forget the way she'd felt seeing Aang fall after Azula shot him with lightning. Right then and there, Katara might have taken pleasure in killing Zuko.

Still, Katara knew from firsthand know-how that Zuko wasn't like Yon Rha. Everything Zuko did was woven with emotion. He might have been a bad person, but even when he did bad things, he was motivated by something, and that she understood. Maybe now more than ever.

Also, he had been right in one thing: at this point everyone else seemed to trust him. If he had wanted to hurt her or any of her friends, by now he'd had plenty of opportunity to do it. He was a good teacher for Aang - not exactly nurturing, but at least patient and respectful - and Aang was improving rapidly with his firebending. Sokka had completely warmed up to Zuko too. Ever since they'd come back from the Fire Nation prison, Sokka'd had what Katara could only call a man-crush on Zuko, and Suki had obviously forgiven him too. Katara couldn't deny that she was grateful to Zuko for helping Sokka bring back her dad, and even her dad had seemed totally fine with Zuko.

None of them had experienced quite the up-close-and-personal hurt she had from him. But then again, he'd just helped her work through something that had been very painful, and she wasn't sure anyone else could have done that with her. Would she ever have let any of the others see her like this? So enraged that it physically hurt? So torn up inside that she'd come close to killing someone? Aang hadn't truly understood. Zuko had never even questioned her.

"Do you want me to tell you how I lost my mother?" Zuko asked, looking back. He was at Appa's reins, and they had been mostly silent for an hour while they started their flight back to the campsite. His words were an abrupt interruption for Katara, who had been lost in her own thoughts. His eyes met her for a moment, but they were unreadable.

She nodded her head and moved up to the part of the saddle closest to where he was sitting.

He looked forward again and was quiet for so long that Katara thought maybe he hadn't seen her nod. Then he spoke. "It was right after my uncle's son died in the war," he started. "My father decided to _take advantage_ of the opportunity." Zuko spat the words out like he was spewing out poison. "He asked my grandfather - Fire Lord Azulon - to take away uncle's birthright. To make him the next Fire Lord instead. He was hungry for power."

Katara's face tightened and she gripped the saddle with her hands. Zuko's _dad_ was Fire Lord Ozai. There were no degrees of separation between them. Zuko was next in line to become Fire Lord himself. Or he had been, before he'd betrayed his country to join Aang. She kept that realization to herself, but Zuko looked back at her with a sad smirk on his lips.

"Bad luck," he said, as if he'd been reading her mind. "Anyway, Azulon was angry at my father for the request, and he decided to punish him - by ordering him to kill me."

Katara gasped and covered her mouth. Zuko touched his scar. "The desire to inflict cruel punishment on your own son sort of runs in my family." Her eyes widened but she didn't ask. "He was going to do it," Zuko went on. "But my mother found out. She knew my dad wanted the throne more than anything, so she came up with a plan to kill my grandfather instead. That night, she came and woke me up. She didn't tell me what had happened. Only that everything she'd done, she'd done to protect me. The next morning, she was gone. Her punishment for her crimes was banishment."

Katara wasn't sure how to respond. She was ill-equipped to handle this kind of story.

"Your mother died to protect you," Zuko said. "And mine killed to protect me."

Katara thought of what Zuko's mom must have gone through, knowing that her son's life was in danger. Knowing what she had to do to protect him - from his own father. The images she imagined sent shivers up her spine. "Do you know where she is now?" Katara asked.

"No," he said.

He didn't say anything for a long time after that, and Katara found herself lost for words again, still thinking about Zuko's complicated history and her own experience that day. She'd come so close to killing Yon Rha out of vengeance. Only the realization that killing him would only hurt her, without punishing him, had stopped her. But what if killing had been the only way she had to protect someone she loved? Would she have stopped then? She didn't think so. Zuko's mom had done exactly what she thought a mother should do to protect her son.

"I've never killed anyone," he said.

Her head spun back in his direction. Several minutes had passed. She had thought he was done with the conversation. She looked up at him in shock.

"I know," he said, his face grim. "You think I'm a terrible person and that all I did for three years is go around the world killing anyone who wouldn't give me the Avatar. But I've never taken anyone's life."

"And you weren't afraid of me killing the guy who killed my mother?" Katara asked.

Zuko didn't answer.

"What if I had done it?" she said, her voice a shriek.

He still didn't answer. "You didn't think I would, did you?" she said, and now it felt like an accusation. "You didn't think I'd go through with it!"

"I didn't know," he admitted. "I learned not to underestimate you a long time ago. Anyway, it was your fight. If you'd done it, I wouldn't have cared. I just wanted you to get closure."

"But why?" she asked.

"Because I hurt you," he said. "And I do care what you think of me. I needed to prove that you could trust me."

She stared at him and for some reason her heart was pounding inside. He was quiet, like he was waiting for her to pass judgment on him, when she had been the one waiting for him to pass judgment on her. She thought maybe he was holding his breath, and she was holding hers too. Did she trust him? The last few days with Zuko had been tactically effortless. In some ways, this was the easiest thing she had done since joining Aang. Coordinating with Zuko was instinctual. It was like having someone at her back who would naturally fill in the gaps without thinking or asking or planning. Was that something like trust?

"Maybe we still need to talk out the pirate thing," Zuko said, breaking the eye contact and looking away. Katara laughed, and the surprised look he gave her was so genuine that she laughed again.

"Maybe we can save that discussion for a few more years," Katara said.

"Okay," he said, sounding hopeful, and she liked the sound of that.


	3. Chapter 3 - Healing and Hugs

**Author Notes:**

Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing

**Season 3, Sozin's Comet**

**The morning after Zuko and Katara defeat Azula.**

Zuko knocked on her door early in the morning. She wouldn't have been awake except she had barely been able to sleep. Both she and Zuko were in the Fire Palace. Word had come that Aang had defeated Fire Lord Ozai. He and the rest of their friends would be arriving via air ship that evening, and they would work out the details after that. Details such as when Zuko's coronation would be and what would happen now. Katara didn't even know how to process what the end of the war would mean for her, and the expansive, ornate guest room she had slept in with its lurking shadows made her feel isolated and afraid.

The knock was almost inaudible. It was as if he were afraid she was asleep or otherwise uninterested in visitors. But she couldn't think of anyone else it could be, and she got up fast to open the door. Zuko stood outside her room, the dark circles under his eyes indicating that he hadn't slept any better than she had.

"Zuko, are you okay?" she asked, but he just opened his mouth silently like a fish sucking in water, his eyes open and vulnerable, so she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the room. The bandages were visible under his robes, which hung loose and untied from his shoulders. She tugged him toward a low couch. "Come on," she said, "let me look at those," and she didn't wait for him to protest before she slid around to help him out of the robes so that she could get a better look look at the bandage wrapped around his torso.

"It's not too bad," he said, but he flinched when she picked up his arm to try to get to the place where the bandages were tucked together.

"Zuko," she said, admonishing him. "Just let me help."

"I didn't mean to bother you for this," he said. She narrowed her eyes at him and made a noise that sounded like "tsk".

"This isn't a bother," she said, looping her arms around him to unwrap the long strip of cloth that was protecting the wound. The room was gray, the sun not yet having found the heavily curtained windows, but even in the poor light she could see the skin where the lightning had hit him. It was red and blistered. She bit her lip. "Sit," she said, pressing him down to the couch. He followed her command and let her help him lie back. She pulled up a stool so she could sit next to him.

Looking at the bare raw skin created a need for her to swallow back a fresh round of tears. She gloved her hands in water and pressed them to the wound, willing the harmed tissue to knit back together. He set his hand lightly on her arm while she did it, and the gesture was endearing.

"I couldn't sleep," he said as she concentrated on him.

"You have a good excuse," she said. "You're going to be the Fire Lord in a few days. That's a lot to think about."

"What's your excuse?" he asked insightfully.

She didn't answer. She didn't know how to answer. Her excuse had something to do with all the worries of tomorrow, and there were too many unknowns to resolve any of those worries. Right now all she could do was try to stay in the present. A present where Zuko (not the future Fire Lord) had come to her for help as a friend.

She focused on him. She could sense a lot of pain under the skin. She gently pulled up with the water, guiding the pain out and away from his body. He let his hand fall to the side while he breathed out quietly. Then she put her hands back down on him again, continuing the process. She wasn't sure all the pain had come from Azula's attack. Some of it felt deeper.

"You could stay here for a while," he said hopefully. "Everyone could."

"Maybe for a little while," she agreed, but she couldn't help wondering how short that time period would be, so she was back to worrying about tomorrow again. She knew by the look in his eyes that he didn't much like the idea of separation either. There was a bond between them that wouldn't get along well with distance. It was strange to think about. Zuko had been a presence in her life all year. They'd been on the same journey in some form or another since the day they'd left the South Pole. Even when they had been enemies, and he was just a a nightmare, he'd always been there. Now they had come to the end of the journey together, and now, when they were finally friends — good friends — their paths were about the diverge again. She hated it.

Her hands stopped moving. She had only been comforting a friend, so she wasn't sure why - while her troubled thoughts floated through her mind - that her eyes chose right then to notice the sharp edge of his jaw and the muscular angles of his torso. She looked away from him and she felt his stomach tense under her hands. He started to sit up, and she quickly tried to correct the mistake.

"I'm not done," she protested, putting both hands to his shoulders to hold him down, but that was only a discovery of something else that was muscular and hard about him, and she hoped he couldn't see her blush. He didn't fight her, though she knew he could have.

"Thanks again, Katara," he said, and it sounded like he thought he was troubling her. He didn't realize the extent to which healing someone else - especially someone she cared about - was meditative and emotionally healing for her as well.

"Stop thanking me," she said. "You saved my life. I'm just returning the favor."

"You returned the favor yesterday when you took down my sister," he said sincerely. "Now you're just being nice."

She wanted to kiss him. Or at least hug him. She couldn't think about why. Instead, she focused on the task of ignoring the physical body she was healing and instead seeking the pain below the surface, letting her hands glide up and down over the wounded area. There were so many physical remnants of pain twisted up inside him. Soon his hand gripped her wrist. "That's good, Katara," he said.

She caught his eye again.

"You can do more later," he promised.

She helped him back up, then he stood while she wrapped a cloth bandage around him tightly again, binding the wound. Her hands were shakier than before, and the close distance necessary for her to pull the cloth over his stomach, below his arm, around his back and so on made her own skin feel warm. She promised herself it was only the strange circumstance doing this to her. That there was nothing else to the heat flowing up from the core of her body except for the emotional height of the last few days. She rather quickly helped him back into his robes, but when the loose fabric still hung untied around him, and he stood looking at her, she fought to ignore the impulse she had to wrap her arms around his chest under the robes.

She had to step back. She looked away, then looked back, and the look he gave her then made her almost step forward again. She didn't. He did it for her instead, and she experienced it in slow motion when he reached for her and she instinctively reached back until their arms were around each other's backs. The side of his face brushed hers before she buried her face in his shoulder and he buried his in hers. She felt tears that weren't her own on the skin of her neck.

"Katara," he said, not letting go, and she had to think not to do something inappropriate, like touch her lips to his neck. "I'm really afraid. I don't know if I can do this."

"Yes," she said, and she did resist and she did not let go, because this was her friend and he was in pain and he needed her to be there for him as his friend. "You can."

—

Zuko hadn't slept. He hadn't even been able to bring himself to lay down on his bed, in his own room, in the place where he'd grown up. He knew he needed the rest, knew the next few days weren't going to be easier, knew he would have to sleep sometime, but for now his head was too full with thoughts that wouldn't let him go. For so many years of his life he'd perceived the crown as his rightful inheritance. Now he felt like a thief in the night, totally unworthy of becoming the leader of his own country. He feared his inability to bring peace to his people.

Katara was miles away. Or at least it seemed like she was. Really, she was only in a guest room a few hallways away. But for the last several weeks she had rarely been more than a few feet away. It had been startlingly simply to become accustomed to her standing near him. He expected it, turning naturally to look for her at his side or his back. Zuko had come to feel that he belonged with Aang and his friends generally, and she had been the one who solidified the feeling. Now that he was back home, where he truly did belong, he felt lonely without her so close.

It only made sense for him to seek her out the morning after the fight. He went to the room where she had slept like a ghost floating along a predetermined path. It was only when he started to knock that it occurred to him that perhaps she didn't feel the same way. Perhaps she wasn't feeling the emptiness he was feeling alone. He knocked quietly, afraid he'd misunderstood her.

She opened the door almost immediately and acted like she'd known it would be him.

She said something but whatever it was barely registered in his mind. He'd known when he left his own room that he needed to see her, but he hadn't anticipated the feeling that rushed over him once he did and it made him feel like a thief in a different sort of way. He still hadn't responded when she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the room, stopping him in front of a long, low couch.

"Come on," she said, "let me look at those." She was moving around him and her fingers were at the edge of the robes he'd slung over his shoulders so that he wouldn't be totally indecent when he showed up. She swiftly pushed the robes off and out of the way. Then she ran her hand lightly along the bandages covering his back, looking for the place where the binding started or stopped. She thought he was here because he needed a healing session.

"It's not too bad," he said numbly, not sure what to do now that he had the contact he hadn't realized he'd wanted. He let her raise his arm in her search and a sharp pang shot through him. She noticed.

"Zuko," she said, glaring at him. "Just let me help."

"I didn't mean to bother you for this," he said, but she just narrowed her eyes further as if he had said something insulting and made a noise that sounded like "tsk". She started to unwrap the bandage covering the wound and he stood frozen in place while her arms moved back and forth around him. Her face crinkled up when she saw the state of the wound.

"Sit," she ordered, using her hands to push him down onto the couch from his shoulders. He let her do it, and then she put an arm behind his back so that she could guide him down to lie flat. Quickly she had pulled a stool up and was sitting next to him, her hands pressing healing water to his stomach. It was so fast and he was so vulnerable to her that he didn't even try to stop her. All he could do was attempt to reciprocate the comfort she was giving him by weakly placing his hand on her arm while he felt his skin sutured back together.

"I couldn't sleep," he confided while she worked.

"You have a good excuse," she said. "You're going to be the Fire Lord in a few days. That's a lot to think about."

She understood. She didn't expect him to be taking this lightly, nor did she expect him to be celebrating. Her eyes looked tired too, though. Sleep must not have come easily to her either.

"What's your excuse?" he asked.

She didn't answer. She just continued to run her hands along the raw skin. Her healing abilities were impressive. It wasn't just skin and muscle and blood fitting itself back together. It was her channeling pain out of his body. He relaxed under her care and allowed himself to let go of the pain. It occurred to him that she was reaching something buried deeper than physical pain, and he wished he could do the same for her.

"You could stay here for a while," he said, though perhaps that was a selfish thing to say. Maybe he was wrong to think that if she stayed, they could drift into a more peaceful existence together. Maybe he wasn't something she needed. "Everyone could."

"Maybe for a little while," she agreed, but he knew the thing she wasn't saying. That soon she would leave. That soon he would be alone. He hated the idea with so much passion. The connection they'd developed was new and fragile. Distance might destroy it. He wasn't sure why that thought prompted his body to notice the soft touch of her hands and how intimately placed they were on him. Her hands stilled as though she too had become lost in her thoughts, and when she looked away, his stomach clenched. He started to sit up. He didn't want to risk making her uncomfortable. She turned back quickly, placing her hands on his shoulders to hold him down.

"I'm not done," she protested, and feelings he certainly had never acknowledged before arose within him, overwhelming the sense of self-preservation that told him he ought to get the hell out of there before he did something truly foolish.

He wasn't sure what he would have done if her eyes hadn't held the soft kindness of a friend. As it was, he didn't fight her protest. "Thanks again, Katara," was all he said. She was blushing.

"Stop thanking me," she said. "You saved my life. I'm just returning the favor."

"You returned the favor yesterday when you took down my sister," he countered, needing her to know there was mutuality in the affection that continued to grow between them. "Now you're just being nice."

She didn't respond, but her hands started to float along his body again. The healing seemed deeper and more intense. He tried not to notice the physical sensation of her hands drifting down toward his navel and up again toward his sternum, but she wasn't just drawing pain out. She was also stirring up something primal inside him. He held out until he couldn't handle it any longer, then he caught her wrist with his hand, stopping her. "That's good, Katara," he said, trying desperately to calm the intense feelings.

She caught his eye again with a question.

"You can do more later," he promised, not wanting her to think she'd done anything wrong. She seemed to accept that, and she helped him back up. Then he stood still while she bound the wound again, and he thought she might have felt some of the heat rising between them because her hands seemed unsure for the first time all morning and she worked fast to get him back into his robes. He shook the thought away quickly. She was, as it had once been mentioned, way too pretty for him.

More importantly, she was way too good. He could confide in her, and trust her to keep any secret or weakness she discovered in him to herself. He could have dragged her through all the mud and muck of his life, and she would have come out completely clean. She understood things about him that he thought no one else could, and he needed to know that this wouldn't be the last time he could call on her to lend him her strength and compassion.

There was no way in hell he was going to risk losing that for the sake of what was surely a moment of weakness on his part now. His long-term desire to maintain a strong friendship with this girl outweighed the temporary madness that made him want to know what would happen if he did something to turn up the rising heat.

She stepped back from him, looking aside and then looking up again to check his reaction, and they stood looking at each other. She was as vulnerable as he was. He couldn't kiss her. But in this moment he had little control over what he did do. He stepped forward, reaching out for her and feeling her reach back for him, the soft skin of the side of her face lightly brushing his while their arms crossed behind each other's backs. She rested her forehead against his shoulder and he leaned his head down into her shoulder, and this was why he'd come to her room this morning. Because he needed someone to cry with and she was the only friend he had capable of handling it.

"Katara, I'm really afraid," he confessed, not letting go. "I don't know if I can do this."

"Yes," she said, soothing him with her voice and also, thankfully, not letting go. "You can."


	4. Chapter 4 - Unlikely Slumber Party

**Author Notes:**

Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing

**Season 3, The Southern Raiders**

**On their way back from Whale Tail Island, Zuko takes Katara to his family's home on Ember Island.**

They needed to stop again. The rain had fallen most of the way back, and Zuko could tell from the way Appa had started listing to the side in the wind that the bison was getting too tired to fly. Plus, he was concerned about Katara, who drifted through long periods of silence. She'd stopped trying to bend the rain away hours ago, and he wasn't sure if she'd tell him when she reached the point where she was too cold and wet to keep going in the sky.

Anyway, he was soaked through and freezing and the opportunity to land was here. Really, it was the only logical choice.

"Hey," he said, turning back to Katara from the reins. "Can you give us some cloud coverage? I'm going to bring Appa down over there." He pointed out into the distance.

Katara looked through the telescope toward the land he was pointing at. "Over there?" she asked. "But there are houses on that island. It must be part of the Fire Nation."

"It is," Zuko said. "That's Ember Island. I, um, have a house there. Sort of."

Katara removed the telescope from her eye and looked at him like he was crazy. "You can't be serious," she said.

He chewed the inside of his mouth. "I am. The house is all closed up. My family never goes there anymore. My father hasn't been since he banished my mother years ago. It's the last place anyone's going to think to look for me. Or Aang."

Katara shivered in the rain. "Fine," she said. "Let's do it."

The whole point of going with Katara on this trip was to get her to trust him again, so it should have felt good that she was trusting him now, but when when they landed in the courtyard at his family's home on Ember Island, he only felt bad. He had the feeling that part of her willingness to trust him with the decision to come here had to do with the haunted look in her eyes and the way her shoulders sagged as she walked. He missed the glint in her eyes. He would have taken her "screw you, stupid firebender" smirk over this. He led the way to the back door. She trailed behind him, looking around like a person in a bad dream. The door was boarded up. He kicked it in. She followed him inside.

"Um, so, this is it, I guess. It's been in my father's family forever." It was dark inside. He held out his hand and willed fire into his palm so they would be able to see. He turned just in time to see her eyes flicker to the fire, and to note the flash of fear that she covered almost immediately with gutsy bravado. He tried not to think about that.

They floated through the house like ghosts, her quiet footsteps falling behind his. He wasn't exactly sure what to do now that they were here, and he wandered to the sitting room with the big fireplace and started lighting the sconces on the walls.

She stood in the center of the room, swaying on the balls of her feet. She'd barely slept in three days. He had vaguely thought of her sleeping in the room Azula used to sleep in, while he went to his old room, but it bothered him to think of leaving her alone like that here. She shivered again. He saw a pile of old firewood and started stacking it in the fireplace.

"We need to dry off," he said, lighting the fire and starting to peel off his upper robes, which were wet and clinging to his body. She blinked rapidly at him, shock panning over her face, and he realized with an idiotic start that maybe it was inappropriate to be taking off clothing with a girl in the room. Although she'd definitely seen him train shirtless before. He hastily removed the rest of his upper robes and was thankful for the dark shadows that hid his blush. She continued to look blankly at him.

"I'm going to look around and see if there's any extra clothes in the rooms upstairs," he said, trying to think of what she would need. "Um, do you want to clean up? I can show you the washroom."

She nodded. He took her to one of the big bathrooms, where there were more candles to light and dry towels in a linen closet. Then he left her there and began a hunt through the rest of the house. He found a few sets of old robes that had probably been his father's in a wardrobe and changed into them. He returned to the sitting room several minutes later carrying a stack of blankets and pillows. Katara was already back, taking dust covers off furniture. "I found some old clothes that were in my mother's closet," he said. "They might be too big for you, but-"

"Thanks," she said. "I'm dry."

He did a double-take. "How?"

"I'm a waterbender," she shrugged, like it should have been self-evident to him that she could just bend the water away.

"Right," he said awkwardly. They looked at each other. She pulled another dust cover off a couch. He set some of the blankets and pillows down on the couch she'd just uncovered. She sat down on it while he put the rest of the blankets on an identical couch that was just across from hers. He sat down on it. They looked at each other again.

"You have a nice house," she said.

He nodded though he hated this house and the memories he had of it. "Yeah," he said. "Thanks I guess."

They looked at each other again. Or they sort of looked at each other. If he held her gaze too long, she shifted her eyes to the side and crossed her ankles. If she was the one who forgot to stop looking, then he shifted his eyes and cleared his throat. He tried to think of something to say.

"This is weird, isn't it?" she asked, finally breaking the ice. She picked up one of the blankets and curled into it.

He wasn't sure how to respond. "No," he said. "It's not weird. Why would it be weird?" But it was weird. He flipped onto his back and stretched out on his couch.

"Right," she said, grabbing a pillow and hugging it to her body. "Because it's not like anyone would be surprised to find the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe in the Fire Lord's house having a slumber party with the Fire Prince himself. Totally not weird."

Zuko pressed his lips together to avoid laughing and looked sideways at her. She was laughing silently to herself, her shoulders shaking up and down. The minute he caught her eye, she stopped. But then her shoulders started shaking again, and he almost started laughing too except that she wasn't laughing anymore. Now she was crying, wiping tears furiously away like she was angry at herself for having them.

He sat up.

"Katara?"

She turned her face from him, burying it in the pillow.

So what was he supposed to do? Should he say something? What should he say? What would his uncle have told him to say? His uncle knew what to do with women. But everything he could think of Uncle Iroh telling him seemed wrong for this situation. What if Mai had been crying? Mai didn't cry. She didn't have emotions like that. Azula? Well he wasn't going to run away and hide from Katara.

It was still going on. Her face was hidden in the pillow. Her body was shaking. She was silent except for the heaving breaths she was taking. He should comfort her. Should he comfort her? How should he comfort her? He should definitely comfort her.

This was going to go poorly. She was going to kill him. He got up. She didn't notice. He took one step forward. She didn't look up. He took another step. He was stealthy. Only one more. He stood still looking at her. She was right. This was the most unlikely situation he could possibly think of already. In what world did _he_ \- the heir to the Fire Nation throne - bring _her_ \- a water tribe peasant - to his family's summer home on a vacation island? In what world did he - a _firebender_ \- try to comfort her - a _waterbender_? What could he possibly know about how to do that? But she hurt. And he knew hurt. Maybe that's why he did take the last step necessary to reach her.

He sat down next to her like he was moving in slow motion. He set his hand down lightly - so lightly - on her shoulder as he sat. Because no way was she going to miss him sitting next to her, and he was afraid that if he waited to make contact, she'd know and she'd move and then where would they be? But he was so slow, because he had no idea if this was what he should do.

At first, she stilled. This wasn't the kind of hurt that could be surprised away, though. The crying started again. And he was already touching her, and his arm was going to get tired if he tried just to keep his hand on her in this minimal way, and it was just him and her and no witnesses and he had the feeling that they were both going to keep quiet about this later. So he put his whole arm around her. Then he turned sideways, tucked his foot under him, and put his other arm around her. He was wrapped around her wrapped in that scratchy old blanket, and she didn't kill him, so that was a nice surprise for him.

He didn't say anything. Except after a while he sort of did. He said "shh", even though he didn't care if she kept crying, and "I know", even though he didn't know, and "it's okay", even though it wasn't. He had been leaning over her. His back hurt. How was she breathing into that pillow? He tugged on her shoulders. It was easy to pull her back toward him. She twisted into his chest without really looking at him. They both shifted so that he could lean against the arm rest and she could lean against him, and finally finally she wasn't crying anymore. Or at least her chest wasn't heaving and tears weren't coming down actively anymore, though she still shuddered in his arms.

She was in his arms.

Now it was weird.

"I almost killed him," she said.

He stroked her hair. (Since when was it okay to do that?) "Yeah," he said. "I have kind of a long list of people I can say that about. Um, including you."

She scrambled out of his arms, scooted to the other side of the couch and looked at him like she'd just realized what was happening.

He got the message. "Are you hungry?" he asked, standing up. "I'm going to see if there's anything I can salvage from the kitchen."

"I think we still have seal jerky," she said, her voice moving though she was looking at him from a frozen position on the couch.

The thought of more seal jerky made him want to barf. "No thank you," he said, and he started to walk away.

"Wait," she said.

He turned around and looked at her.

She looked at him. There was a lot of looking going on tonight. More than normal.

"What?" he asked.

Was she going to start crying again?

"Um, thank you," she said.

"It's okay," he said. "You were upset."

"No," she said. "Not for that." She frowned and her eyebrows pinched together. "I mean, yes, thank you for that too. But also, thank you. For helping me. For helping me find the man who killed my mother."

He blinked.

"You're welcome," he said, and he turned toward the kitchen again. But on second thought, he turned back. Her eyes were still on him. He didn't recognize the expression on her face. "Katara," he said, "I'm really sorry. For everything."

"You already apologized," she said.

"I don't think I did," he said. "I mean, to you. You trusted me when we were together in Ba Sing Se, but I didn't trust you. I let my sister convince me that there was still a chance that I could go home. I knew better, and I chose to be selfish and cowardly instead of doing what was right. It was dishonorable and wrong, and I'm sorry I hurt you and even sorrier about what happened to Aang because of it."

She didn't answer. He left the room. When he came back from the kitchen, she was lying under the blanket with her back turned to him. The next morning, she was still sleeping soundly when he woke up to the sunlight coming in through the boarded windows. He left her a note that said he'd gone to get Aang and the others and would be back later. She needed time, he thought, to sort it all out on her own. And he needed the same.


	5. Chapter 5 - Through Hakoda's Eyes

**Author Notes:**

Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing

**Season 3, Post "Boiling Rock" **

**Sokka and Katara are reunited with their father, Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe, who has now joined up with the Gaang at the Western Air Temple. **

Hakoda loved his kids more than anything in the world. That's why, when they were small, he attended tea parties, gave piggy-back rides and suffered through snowball fights in which his kids joyfully wailed out battle cries before they tackled him to the ground. He loved his kids more than anything because the woman he loved more than anything gave them to him. Kya would hide her smile when they came in soaking wet and cold from those snowball fights. She weaved warm security into their cozy hut with love and hot cocoa: security they all lost the day they lost her.

Hakoda wasn't sure he'd been the best father after that. He drove away his grief training men to fight and organizing to take a stand in the war. It was for his kids. They were different from the other village children now, dimmer somehow. Worn down by grief and the burden of living without a mother. He somehow had to keep the war from ever reaching them again. Especially Katara, who was a waterbender, and for whom the Fire Nation would be back, sooner or later.

When he left with the other men, it was with the uneasy sense that he was leaving his children behind with too much to bear and not enough to sustain them. He prayed to the spirits every day to protect them, and he missed them deeply. When rumors reached him that the Avatar was traveling with two kids from the Southern Water Tribe, he dismissed the stories as incredulous. He also started having nightmares about his kids. Surely they wouldn't have left the South Pole. When Bato - his best friend - confirmed the rumors, Hakoda almost refused to believe him. This meant Hakoda had failed his kids. He had not kept the war from reaching them. They were at the very center of it. The night Bato came back, Hakoda wept uncontrollably for his children. The other men, many of whom also had children back at home in the village, seemed to understand.

The rumors kept coming. Hakoda was very very proud of his children, and very very frightened for them, and the fear and pride were only heightened whenever his men ran into a traveler telling stories about the Avatar and _his kids_ as though they were legends. The men gave him looks of mixed awe and pity. But the moment Sokka walked into his tent at camp two and a half years after Hakoda had left the South Pole was one of the greatest moments of his life. The small, awkward, gangly boy he'd left behind was strong, self-assured and growing up. Hakoda could tell by the cautious, thoughtful way he spoke and the wise, contemplative way he reviewed their battle plans that Sokka was a warrior in his own right now. _That's my son_, he kept having to remind himself as he watched Sokka. _That's my son._

His daughter had changed even more drastically. When he'd left Katara behind, she was still a soft child who would cuddle on his lap and look up at him with big, approval-seeking eyes. Boys weren't on her radar yet. When he saw her again, she wasn't a little girl anymore. Her body had formed feminine curves, her face was sharp and stubborn and her eyes had fierce strength that dared anyone who met them to take the boy she held in her arms away from her. Sokka told him the boy - the Avatar - had a crush on Katara, and Hakoda tried to adjust to the idea of his daughter thinking about any boy that way. Katara spent every spare minute watching over the Avatar while he healed. While _she_ healed him.

"Don't worry. I don't think she sees him that way, dad," Sokka said to him once, when he caught Hakoda looking at her strangely as she disappeared to go to the Avatar again. "She goes more for the angry, brooding type."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Hakoda asked.

"Good point," Sokka said.

But Hakoda didn't have time then to assess Katara's interest in the Avatar further. It quickly became clear that the Avatar would need to stay undercover until Hakoda and his men could meet up with them again for battle on the day of the eclipse. Sokka and Katara went with the Avatar. They went without question, following him after a stormy night in which Aang set off on his own to fight alone.

It broke Katara's heart that Aang left, and she went after him anyway. Even after she cried in her father's arms about how stupid and selfish it was for any one person to leave behind the ones he loved to fight the war. Didn't the Avatar see they could help? Didn't he see how much he needed them and how much they needed him too? She was talking about her father as much as she was about the Avatar. Hakoda got the message. He held his daughter and told her how much he loved her. He didn't tell her - would never tell her - how much it hurt him to see her and Sokka leave him again. Didn't his kids see how much they needed him? Didn't they see how much he needed them too?

It didn't matter. They had to face their destinies, and they did it bravely. Bato slapped him on the back as they flew out on Appa to find Aang. "You should be proud, Chief," his friend said.

"I am," Hakoda said, though tears ran down his face. He prayed he would see his kids again.

He did see them again. He saw them fighting the war - saw them in the heart of battle - the day of the eclipse. Sokka called it the Day of Black Sun. It was Hakoda's proudest moment of his life up to that point. Seeing his kids fight was surreal. They were both so strong, and he could hardly believe the confidence with which they fought and the degree to which they protected each other. Their spirit strengthened his own will to fight, even after they'd lost that battle and had to face another long separation. This time, there was no way of knowing how long it would be.

"We came close to victory," Bato said, as they were hauled off to Fire Nation prisons. "Sokka and Katara were incredible."

"We're lucky your kids were the one who found the Avatar, Chief," Tyro, the earthbender, said. "Haru talks about Katara like the spirits themselves sent her to us. She's an absolute inspiration."

"And Sokka's almost as brilliant as I am," the mechanist from the Northern Air Temple said, sticking his finger into the air. "His plan would have been perfect if the Fire Lord had not known of the invasion."

"Yeah," Hakoda said, touching the healed wound on his side and nodding in disbelief. But this was the fourth time he'd said goodbye to Sokka in the span of a few months, and he wanted his brilliant son and his inspirational daughter by his side, not somewhere else. He vowed not to let the separation kill him, despite the pain in his heart. He vowed to be strong in honor of his children, still fighting the war somewhere without him.

He never dreamed the next time he would see Sokka would be in prison at the Boiling Rock.

Kids grow in spurts. Sokka was even more brilliant now and more courageous, and he had new allies. A girl - Suki - who Sokka was clearly in love with. No wonder. Her own bravery and talent was something else. Another boy too. The Fire Prince. That one was a surprise, and it was even more surprising to see the camaraderie developing between the two boys. It was different from what Hakoda had seen between Sokka and Aang - which felt more like an older/younger brother thing. This was a friendship based on respect and some kind of mutual understanding. As if Sokka and the Fire Prince were equals. It made Hakoda wonder if there would ever be a world in which the Southern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation were led by men who were close allies instead of enemies.

Though when he saw _Katara_ with Prince Zuko, his thoughts on what the future of the world might look like shifted somewhat. Hakoda liked Zuko, and not just because of the way he was willing to back up his son in a fight. The Prince was nothing but polite and respectful with everyone in the Avatar's small community at the Western Air Temple, including Katara.

Katara, on the other hand, was nothing but kind and nurturing with everyone at the temple. _Except_ Prince Zuko. Him she watched with eyes like an eagle hawk's, and if there was an opportunity to see him fail, she relished in it. Hakoda had seen the deep way Katara cared about the Avatar. Now he was seeing the deep way she hated the Fire Prince. It made him watch the Fire Prince more closely himself, though in a different way.

"I'd like to see Katara train with him sometime, wouldn't you?" Hakoda commented one morning to Sokka, while they took a break from their morning workout and watched Aang and Zuko practice firebending.

"Aang and Katara train together all the time," Sokka said.

"That wasn't what I meant," Hakoda said. He lunged playfully toward Sokka with the sword he'd been practicing with against Sokka. Sokka leapt out of the way and they began another practice fight. Hakoda missed snowball fights, but seeing Sokka best his old man with a sword was even more gratifying than being shoved into the snow by him had been. They were too busy fighting to see the firebending come to an end.

"Sokka should practice with Zuko, too," Aang suggested, coming over to them after his lesson. He was riding an air ball. Aang was an eager kid, always seeking out attention, and Hakoda wondered what it must have been like for Aang to grow up without ever knowing either of his parents.

Sokka laughed. "No offense, Aang, but I don't think Zuko can teach me to firebend."

"No," Aang said as Prince Zuko caught up. "Zuko's got his swords."

Hakoda looked at Zuko curiously. The boy struck Hakoda as hard to get to know personally. He wondered what it must have been like for Zuko to grow up with the Fire Lord as his father. Someone else must have had more influence over him.

Aang egged Zuko on. "Come on, Zuko," he said. "Tell Sokka and Chief Hakoda how you have, like, ninja fighting abilities with your swords."

"Prince Zuko," Hakoda encouraged gently. "I didn't realize you were skilled with broad swords."

Zuko shrugged reluctantly. "It's not widely known."

"So Aang's right!" Sokka said excitedly. "We can practice together!"

Zuko rolled his eyes. "I don't think that's a good idea, Sokka," he said.

"Oh really?" Sokka taunted. "Think you can't take me? I bet you're afraid."

Zuko crossed his arms. "I'm afraid of your sister. _You_ I can take."

Aang belly-laughed and Hakoda tried not to show his own amusement too much on his face. The Fire Prince was smart to be afraid of his daughter.

"You're afraid of Katara?" Aang said. They were drawing a crowd. That kid named Haru had come over - another boy who had a crush on his daughter - along with the little one they called The Duke.

"Who's afraid of Katara?" Haru asked. Hakoda almost felt bad for Haru the way he said Katara's name - like she was a goddess of some kind. He was a nice boy, but Katara hadn't reciprocated Haru's interest. In Hakoda's opinion, Katara was more likely to take up with Aang - whom she doted on like a child - than Haru.

"Zuko, apparently," Sokka said, crossing his arms too. He pointed his hand at Zuko. "He thinks he could take _me_ in a fight, but he's afraid of Katara!"

Haru looked at Zuko skeptically. "That's off, man," he commented. "Katara would never hurt anyone."

"Don't worry, Zuko," The Duke said. "You're definitely stronger than Katara. If you ever had to fight her, I bet you'd win."

Zuko stood by stubbornly frowning at the other boys. "I _have_ fought her. A few times."

Now Hakoda really laughed. He couldn't help it. So Zuko and Katara had already gotten a taste of each other fighting? Maybe that's why no one ever suggested they train together now.

"Is that what you did to get on my daughter's bad side, son?" Hakoda asked. "Get in a few fights with her?"

Sokka guffawed obliviously. "Zuko's done more than that. He used to be Katara's personal nemesis. He even stole her necklace one time and used it to track us down."

"Remember what she said after we got the necklace back?" Aang chortled.

Sokka started cracking up. "'Aang, how did you get that?'" he said, pitching his voice high to impersonate Katara and acting out the charade of putting on a necklace while he danced around.

"Zuko asked to be sure I got it to you," Aang said, impersonating himself.

"'Oh, that's so sweet of Zuko. Would you give him a kiss for me when you see him?'" Sokka continued sarcastically, waving a kiss at Aang while he fluttered his eyelashes and wiggled his butt around. It was a good thing Katara was nowhere nearby. Hakoda was sure she would have killed her brother for that, and maybe the Avatar too, even if he _was_ the world's last hope. Prince Zuko turned a shade of red that Hakoda hadn't thought possible on skin that pale.

"She's going to hate me for the rest of my life," he moaned. "And I deserve it."

A memory from Hakoda's youth - something he kept buried deep - surfaced. Suddenly, Hakoda found the Fire Prince much more interesting than Haru or Aang. He set his hand on Zuko's shoulder sympathetically. "She'll come around eventually," he advised. "Water Tribe women can be stubborn. I picked fights with one girl in my tribe for years. For a long time, she would barely speak to me except to insult me."

Zuko looked silently at him with a tiny bit of hope.

"What happened, Chief Hakoda?" Aang asked curiously. "Did you become friends?"

"Yep," Hakoda said. "We did."

"Who was this girl?" Sokka asked suspiciously. "Did I ever meet her?"

Hakoda smiled tenderly at his son. "Yes, Sokka," he said. "You did meet her."

"How did you do it?" Zuko finally asked, breaking his own silence.

Hakoda grinned. "I married her," he said.

Sokka's jaw dropped and Zuko blanched, while Aang kicked the dirt angrily and the other boys laughed nervously. "I don't think that's going to solve my problem," Zuko said weakly.

"You're right," Aang said, covering his obvious anger with a harsh laugh.

Hakoda wisely dropped the subject, but the next morning it was Prince Zuko who dove at Katara to save her from being crushed by rocks, not the Avatar. She scrambled out from under the poor boy like she was being crushed by something far more terrifying than rocks. It was more subtle than what Hakoda saw when Sokka grabbed Suki's hand so that he could flee with her while he left his old man behind, but there was something there. As Hakoda led the rest of the group through the Western Air Temple to safety, he wondered what Kya would have thought of their daughter having to choose between the Avatar and the Fire Prince.

He also thought about how he was separated again from his kids, and how this time it felt like the separation was more than just physical. His kids weren't children anymore. Hakoda knew in his heart that even after the war ended, the three of them couldn't go back to living in a hut with Gran Gran. His kids had greater destinies waiting for them, perhaps outside the South Pole.

He had wanted to keep them safe and tucked away from the world. They had chosen to grow up anyway.

Hakoda didn't fight on the day Sozin's comet returned. He sheltered the other kids in his keep while he worried about his own. By his own standards, he was a failure. He had not kept the war from his children. They had flown willfully into it. It wasn't until they stood by him again, at his sides a few days after the comet, that he realized he hadn't failed.

It was true that he had never wanted Sokka to risk his life in battle, and in the end, Sokka had thrown himself into the thick of it. He masterminded and executed a plan that took out Fire Lord Ozai's entire battalion of airships before they could burn down the Earth Kingdom. Sokka had the battle injuries to prove it, along with an impressive medal of honor for bravery in combat and offers to train at several elite military academies.

As for Katara - Hakoda had wanted to hide her - the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe - from the Fire Nation altogether. But the day of the comet his little waterbender warrior stood side-by-side with the Fire Prince outside the Fire Palace in the heart of the Caldera in the Fire Nation. When Prince Zuko had fallen, Katara had been the one to defeat the deranged Princess Azula and heal Zuko. Hakoda didn't miss the looks of trust and affection that now passed between Katara and the young Fire Lord. That relationship had yet to ripen, but Hakoda suspected that the Fire Lord was going to steal his daughter from the Water Tribe one day after all.

He wondered how Avatar Aang would take that? But Katara and Sokka had journeyed together with the Avatar, pulling him into their family, helping him master all four elements, and giving him the strength he needed to defeat Fire Lord Ozai. Those bonds would stick with them for the rest of their lives. Anyway, there was a lot of love to go around. That tough earthbender girl sure did punch the Avatar a lot.

Hakoda wasn't sure if he'd been a good father, but his kids were good kids and perhaps they hadn't lost Kya as much as he thought. Perhaps it was her spirit that gave them the strength to do amazing things. To face their destinies. He was terrified of what each of his kids might decide to do next, and so very very proud no matter what they decided.

Hakoda loved his kids more than anything in the world.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Five-Hundred Club

**Author Notes:**

Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing

**Season 3, The Western Air Temple**

**A series of shorts (all 500 words or less) about how Zuko and Katara cope with each other after Zuko joins Team Avatar at the Western Air Temple**

**#1 It's Your Move**

Zuko asked Katara if she needed help cooking.

"It's stew," the Queen snarled. "I think I can handle it."

Zuko retreated.

"Your turn Toph," Haru said. Toph's attention snapped back to the friendly game of Sticks and Stones she, Haru and The Duke were playing. So far, The Duke owed her two weeks worth of foot rubs and Haru was down ten bronze pieces.

Toph reviewed the placement of the stones on the board. The Duke was a good cheater. Three sticks were hidden under his helmet. She grinned. She was better. "Two flat stones for the cross-sticks in quadrant three," she said.

Haru scratched his chin. "Unconventional."

Toph shrugged. She went back to eavesdropping on Sparky and Sweetie.

"I worked in my Uncle's shop in Ba Sing Se," Zuko was saying. "I can brew the tea."

A growl so low only Toph could have heard it buzzed in Katara's throat. "Trying to poison us?" she muttered under her breath. Zuko picked up the tea kettle. Wrong move, Fire Prince.

"What are you doing!?" Katara screeched.

Zuko dropped the kettle. It clattered down, spilling water everywhere.

"Sorry," he said.

Sweetness stomped her feet. "Fill it with water from the bucket, then set it over the fire!" she ordered.

"I know how to boil water."

_Boy did he ever._

"Your turn again Toph," The Duke said.

Toph turned back to the game. Yep. Just as expected. "Bent stick four," she said.

"What?" The Duke said.

"You heard me."

"Are you sure, Toph? That will leave your king stone unprotected," Haru said.

Toph smiled like a baboon lynx. "I'm sure."

The Duke tapped his fingers in the dirt. He might as well have been banging a drum. Toph leaned back, savoring the sound of an opponent realizing he was about to lose.

"What did you do!?" Katara shouted.

"Nothing! I'm just boiling water!" Zuko shouted back.

"The fire doesn't need to be that big to boil water!"

"But the tea needs to be hot-"

"_We don't _need _scalding hot _tea_!"_

Haru and The Duke looked up. It didn't matter that they were playing one room over from where Katara and Zuko were fighting. Everyone in the temple could hear Katara scream.

"You think I'm trying to _hurt_ you with _tea_?"

"You could be!"

"I'm not!"

"You look like you are!"

"If I wanted to _burn_ you I wouldn't do it with tea!"

Haru and The Duke both laughed nervously. Toph shushed them so she could listen. Except for two fast-beating hearts, she couldn't hear anything.

"Like mixing oil and water, huh?" Sokka said, coming into the room. He sat down cross-legged by Toph. "Watcha playing?"

"More like mixing _fire_ and water," Toph corrected. "And we _were_ playing Sticks and Stones."

"Were?" Haru asked.

Toph laughed. "Check it, boys. You're both out of moves."

"Again?" Haru said.

"Bleeding monkey feathers!" The Duke cried. He lifted his helmet and chucked the three hidden sticks out across the board. "This game stinks!"

**#2 - Mr. Diplomacy**

Zuko made a darn good cup of tea. Better than Katara, though Sokka was too smart to say that out loud. He tried not to get on his sister's bad side, especially right before dinner. Sokka sipped the delicious brew quietly while he waited for Katara to dole out the stew.

Zuko wasn't as smart as Sokka. He had poured the tea into the empty cups on the tray right in front of Katara. Then he'd _skipped_ her and served Toph. He stopped in front of Katara again only after everyone else had their tea first. Two cups of tea remained on the tray. Zuko held the tray out of Katara's reach and took one of the two cups himself. Then he looked silently at her and downed the entire thing. When he was done, he leaned over so that Katara could take the very last cup of tea on the tray.

It was probably cold by then.

She glared and turned up her nose like even if they were the last two people on the whole planet, she'd never let him serve her tea.

"Ooh, if Katara doesn't want hers, I'll take it, Zuko," Aang said. Zuko shrugged and brought the last cup of tea over to Aang while Sokka scowled jealously. _He_ would have taken Katara's tea. Cold or not.

Katara served Zuko's stew first, slopping it all over the edges of the bowl. Katara never spilled stew. Zuko said "thank you."

So. Obviously there was tension between Katara and the newest member of their group.

Luckily, Sokka was there. He had _experience_ helping people get along. Back when Aang was having trouble learning to earthbend from Toph, Sokka had been the one who'd talked to him. He fondly remembered that heart-to-heart, which had taken place while he'd been trapped in a narrow crevice in the ground, Foo Foo Cuddly Poops had been seated on his head and an outraged mama saber-tooth moose lion had been stampeding toward him.

_Master peacekeeper_, Sokka thought.

Plus, he had experience with people who had problems with Katara. Take Toph, for example. If Sokka had never explained to Toph what a good thing it was that his sister was bossy, overbearing, preachy and a seriously annoying nag, Toph might never have come around to her. The girls got along famously now. Except for when Toph made fun of Katara behind her back or when Katara made faces right in front of Toph. Whatever. They liked each other.

_Just call me Mr. Diplomacy. _Sokka cracked his knuckles. Time for a little Sokka-help.

Of course, he waited until Katara had handed him a second bowl of stew before he went for it.

"So, Zuko," Sokka started, stretching back casually. "Ever think of going back to the ponytail? Katara thought it was a good look for you."

He should have waited until he'd finished his second bowl of stew. He'd forgotten how much water stew had in it.

**#3 - Avatar Stuff**

"Katara, if earth and air are opposites, then what's the opposite of water?"

Katara looked at Aang like he'd grown another head.

"What are you getting at?" she said suspiciously.

They had walked to one of the hidden streams in the woods near the temple. Now they were ankle-deep in the stream, practicing gentle waterbending forms. This was Aang's favorite way to end the long summer days. Somehow it seemed right, especially now that he and Zuko were firebending first-thing in the morning.

Katara waved a stream of water through the air.

"I'm just saying," Aang said. "That's why it's so hard for you to get along with Zuko. You're working with your natural opposite."

Katara scowled into the water.

"If you give him a chance-"

"I did give him a chance!"

Aang shut his mouth. He'd never seen Katara like this with anyone before. She was Katara. She had beautiful, compassionate sapphire eyes and kind, soft, healing hands. She believed in positive reinforcement and inspirational speeches. She wasn't supposed to be dark and ill-tempered and unforgiving.

"You should give him another. The dragons judged him and-"

"I'm not a dragon!"

The water she had been bending formed into sharp icicle and impaled the bark of a nearby tree.

"Katara," Aang admonished. "You might have hurt that tree."

"It's just a tree," she snarled.

"The _tree_ has feelings too," he said. She looked guiltily at the tree.

"It's okay," Aang said softly. "You'll figure it out."

* * *

"The thing you have to understand about fire is it's the element of power," Zuko said. "Firebenders have desire, will and the energy to achieve what they want. But my uncle says it's important to draw wisdom from many different places."

"Sounds a lot like Avatar stuff, Zuko," Aang said. He was warming up with a set of hot squats while the sun began climbing into the morning sky. Zuko was a good teacher, but his lessons always started with boring philosophy.

Zuko scratched his head. "It's exactly like that. I've been watching you and Toph practice in the afternoon, and today I want to show you some firebending moves that are similar to the earthbending forms you're learning."

Aang was impressed. Zuko had really changed over the last year. He couldn't imagine the hothead who'd taken him from the South Pole working so patiently with him. This Zuko made Aang think of fire as light, not destruction.

"You should watch Katara and I practice too."

Zuko's shoulders drooped. "I don't think that's a good idea, Aang."

"Why not? I can ask Kata-"

"No!" Zuko's face paled.

"Zuko, I know you and Katara don't really get along, but maybe if you spent more time together…"

Zuko looked at Aang like he'd grown another head. Funny, Aang thought. For two people who were supposed to be opposites, Zuko and Katara sure were a lot alike.

"It's a lost cause," Zuko said.

"Nah," Aang said cheerfully. "You'll figure it out."

**#4 - How to Start a Fire**

Katara blew furiously at the sparks that skipped over the pile of dry tinder she'd gathered. The sun had only just barely announced itself and, though it was summer, the morning chill still make Katara's skin gather. She huffed out an angry growl.

"Come _on_, fire," she said, trying again to coax the sparks to life. She'd lost count of how many times she'd tried this morning. This, her secret daily struggle, was getting on her nerves today more than normal. Why. Wouldn't. This. Fire. Catch?

"What are you doing?"

She spun so fast that she dropped the sparking rocks and nearly fell on her butt from the squatting position she'd been in. Zuko was standing behind her. He looked…confused.

"What does it _look_ like I'm doing?" she said, pissed at his presence, incensed that he'd sneaked up on her and absolutely enraged at the tiny glint of recognition in his eyes that told her she'd been caught. She turned back to the fire wood, picked up the sparking rocks and valiantly tried to ignore him while she clicked the rocks together.

He watched her stupidly.

"Why don't you just…" he started, trailing off like an idiot. Why didn't she _what_? Get one of the guys to do it? Ask _Aang_?

"Why are you up so early?" she snapped, sending sparks rapidly and ineffectively across the wood. She might as well have been spitting on the damn stuff.

"I like to meditate in the morning."

Which meant he'd been up before she had. That was…startling. A little unsettling as well. She didn't like the idea of Zuko nosing around the temple, or anywhere near it, while everyone else was asleep. She acknowledged his answer with a small grunt and hoped he didn't see the sweat forming on her forehead. Starting a fire wasn't one of Katara's talents, but usually she'd have managed by now.

"Um, do you always do it like that?" he asked.

She stopped and looked up at him, her eyes blazing despite her unsuccessful efforts to start a cooking fire. He was giving her a look that she was too frustrated to decipher. She didn't answer him, throwing the rocks down to the ground vehemently instead. She sighed heavily and put her forehead in her hand.

Zuko bent down and picked up the sparking rocks, wordlessly examining them before pocketing both. He flicked his wrist toward the tinder and a perfect cooking fire instantly sprang up.

Katara pressed her lips together. What would otherwise have come out wouldn't have been pretty.

The next morning when she got up, the fire was already started. It would be decades before she would find the sparking rocks again, wrapped in a faded piece of blue cloth and buried deep in Zuko's desk.

**#5 - Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.**

Zuko winced as pain coursed through his leg. He had fallen on his ass in front of everyone. Stupid. Stupid game. Stupid earthbender for suggesting it. Stupid rock that tripped him. Stupid him for tripping.

Sokka came over. "You okay, man?" he asked. Aang was right behind. The boys had decided they needed to burn off energy this afternoon. Zuko thought if they needed to burn off energy, they should have been training. The earthbender kid, Haru, looked stocky and The Duke needed bulking up. But Aang had been excited about the prospect of a game, so despite his misgivings, Zuko joined in.

He should have listened to his instincts.

All the boys were huddled round now. They watched, fascinated, as Zuko rolled up his pant leg, wincing. The gnarled broken branch had gouged deep.

Sokka pointed dumbly. "Is that…is that…?"

How the hell did Sokka make it in battle if he couldn't handle blood?

"Someone catch Sokka, he's gonna…!" Toph cried. Sokka collapsed in Aang's arms. "He's gonna do that," Toph continued, anti-climatically.

Zuko corrected himself mentally. All the boys _plus Toph_ were watching blood ooze out of the gash in his calf. Only Katara had refused to play, despite Aang's protests that the teams would be uneven without her. "_Well excuse me if I inconvenience you while you go play, Aang, but someone has to do the real work around here," she had said. _

Thank the spirits for small miracles. At least Katara wasn't here to see this. That would have been disas-

"Where's Katara?" "Someone get Katara." "Is she still inside?"

"No!" Zuko protested quickly, though no one was listening to him. "It isn't that bad. I don't need-"

"KATARA!" Toph yelled. "ZUKO'S HURT!"

Zuko grimaced. Maybe he'd bleed out before she arrived.

She was too fast for that. She arrived looking like she expected to find Zuko standing triumphant over Aang's dead body. Probably thought Toph had said "Zuko's hurt Aang." He could see the shock and anger in her eyes when the boys stepped back to give her access to him in his fallen state. She towered above him like an avenging angel of death, ready to deliver the final blow.

"Sorry," he said weakly. "It's just some blood. You don't have to…"

She put her fist on her hip and stared down at him with narrowed eyes. How fast could he run with an injury like this?

He flinched when she dropped to her knees next to him. "Hold still," she said evenly. "This won't hurt."

It was over and she had swept back toward the temple before he could remember to breath. A strip of blue fabric bound the freshly healed wound.

Aang suggested a game again the next afternoon. Zuko refused. "The numbers won't be even if I play," he said, glancing at Katara. "Anyway, there's real work that needs to be done around here."


	7. Chapter 7 - That Wasn't a Good Play

**Author Notes:**

Okay...I think I'm almost done with these. It's like there have been all these fluff bunnies in my head, though, and I had to clear them out. (Of course, if you WANT lots more fluff bunnies from me, you could post a review telling me that.)

Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing.

**Season 3, The Ember Island Players**

**The kids have returned from watching the Ember Island Players' production of The Boy in the Iceberg. Aang kissed Katara during intermission.**

Katara needed fresh air. Never mind that it was still dark outside or that the window in the room the girls shared was wide open. The air inside felt stale and suffocating. She needed fresh air. Now.

Toph slept like a rock. Katara stepped stealthily around her sleeping mat. Suki hadn't come to bed last night again, which meant she and Sokka were probably in the room behind the door that was shut tight at the far end of the hallway. The door to the room Sokka was supposed to be sharing with Aang was cracked open, and Katara could hear Aang's nasally snores coming from within. The wood slates creaked loudly right in front of Zuko's room, the last before the staircase. She stilled momentarily, but she didn't hear anyone stir, so she padded quietly down the stairs.

Zuko's creepy summer house was more mansion than villa or cottage. The walls felt saturated with haunted memories. Every step she took made her feel like it was more important to get out. But then when she was outside, the heavy weight of conflicting emotions still hung around her neck. So maybe it wasn't the house that was suffocating her after all. She stood in the empty courtyard and looked down at the cracks in the paving stones, listening to the waves crash on the beach in the distance.

"You're up early."

Katara swung around, arcing water from one of the courtyard fountains up into the air and toward the person intruding on her fresh air before she registered the identity of the voice. Zuko flinched as she altered the water's path to miss him. It splashed to the ground behind him.

"Zuko!" she hissed. "What are you doing out here?"

"I heard someone get up," he said simply.

She waited for him to provide a further explanation. He didn't. The air wasn't feeling any clearer. She shrugged.

"It was me," she said. She put her hand on her hip and stared at him. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared back. "I'm sorry I woke you. You can go back to bed now."

He angled his head at her. "You didn't wake me," he said.

She really didn't care if he hadn't been able to sleep either. She wasn't interested in company. His eyes slanted down and he rocked from one foot to the other as if she were making him uncomfortable. She waited impatiently for him to go back inside. He didn't.

Katara had decided that Zuko was a little socially awkward. He had a tendency to say whatever came to his mind without bothering to filter it. He took everything too seriously. His jokes were so bad even he didn't laugh at them. And things with Zuko were - confusing.

Not as confusing, though, as things with Aang, who had gone and kissed her again last night.

"I'm going to the beach," she said.

It was a challenge, of sorts. Sokka would have scolded her and told her to get back inside. Toph would have scoffed and gone back to bed. Aang would have quoted the monks and made her feel like a bad person for feeling restless.

Katara grimaced. Maybe she was being a little hard on Aang, but he was still living in a world where there was good and bad. The lines she had previously drawn in her life didn't feel so clear cut anymore.

Zuko walked over and stood next to her like he was waiting. The shadows hid the scar on his face. He was socially awkward, but he didn't tell her what to do. Plus, if he'd decided to come with her, he wasn't doing it out of any misplaced sense of moral obligation.

They started walking the trail to the beach. Zuko looked glum. Even for him.

It had been a rough night for everyone, she supposed. Maybe him especially. The play cast Zuko as a surly prince who had bad hair and made bad decisions, including betraying his uncle, joining up with the Avatar and hooking up with _her_ in the caves of Ba Sing Se. After his sister defeated him in the play, he died in the flames yelling "honor!" while the audience cheered.

Katara looked sideways at the heir to the Fire Nation throne. He was looking the opposite direction. She took his hand before she could think not to. It was warm. His fingers closed naturally around hers. He stopped walking.

"It was just a stupid play, Zuko," she said. "No one really wants you dead."

He gave her a look that made her swallow and backtrack.

"Okay," she said, holding his hand tighter. "Maybe some people want you dead. That just means you're that much more valuable alive to the rest of the world."

"Try: my whole country wants me dead," Zuko said, but he clutched her hand like she was a lifeline.

This was the kind of thing that made Zuko confusing. Not that he let her hold his hand or that she took it to begin with. She would have done that instinctively with any of her friends. It was the funny sensation tingling from his fingers pressed into the back of her hand.

Katara sighed. "Try: your whole country has been under the leadership of your evil father who only thinks about power and world domination."

"My mother was a good person," Zuko said wryly.

"I should hope so," Katara said back. She let go of his hand. They kept walking.

"Is Aang okay?" Zuko asked.

Katara laughed mirthlessly. "You're not the only one your whole country wants dead," she said. "He probably feels sort of like you feel right now."

"Hmm," Zuko said. They had reached the beach. Katara took off her shoes and set them by the trail. "Are you going in the water?" he asked. It was the first time he'd questioned her actions. She looked back at him. He looked more nervous than judgmental.

"I'm just wading in," she said, bending down to roll her leggings up to her knees.

"Why?" he asked, watching her.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I like being in the water. It makes me feel…clean or soothed or something."

Zuko's eyebrows narrowed. "Why would you need to feel…like that?"

She huffed and ignored him, plowing forward to the edge of the water until the waves lapped at her feet. The tide was rolling out. She heard Zuko grunt behind her and she turned around to see him yanking off his boots. She stifled a laugh as he waded in after her, flinching with every step he took in the shallow water.

"This is not soothing," he said.

She laughed for real and waded smoothly out until the water was up to her knees. She heard him groan and splash forward awkwardly behind her. The water was mild and she felt like her worries were sinking into the sand with her feet. He said things under his breath about the water that made her smirk. His discomfort distracted her while the water soothed her.

"Okay, I'm in the water like an idiot," he said, breaking the calm. "Mind telling me why?"

"I didn't ask you to follow me here," she said, and she didn't bother to look back while she said it.

"You didn't tell me not to," he countered. "Anyway, you know what's going on with me and there's obviously something going on with you too. Fess up."

"Oh, we're sharing now?" she asked, although it didn't come out as sarcastic as she intended.

"We're fighting together," he responded rationally. "We need to trust each other enough that you know I have your back and vice versa. So spill."

"What if I don't want to talk?" she asked childishly. She did want to talk. She wanted someone to tell her that what she'd said to Aang hadn't been out of line. That it was okay for her not to know right now if she and Aang were ever going to be together. That it made perfect sense not to get caught up in some romantic fantasy with a boy on the eve of war.

She pondered that while she watched the darkness begin to fade. It was almost light enough for her to see the point on the horizon where the ocean stopped and the sky began. She felt his eyes on the back of her head. She turned to face him.

He nodded. "I guess you have other options besides talking," he said.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Like what?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "Like you could cry. Or yell at me if you want."

She half-smiled at him and he half-smiled back.

"We could fight," he offered. She smiled for real at him and he smiled back like he was glad he'd said something that pleased her. A wave splashed high and lapped at the hem of her dress. "Or you could just tell me what happened," he continued. "There was hardly anything bad about you in the play."

Apart from it portraying her as a preachy drama-queen who could barely keep it together. Apart from how her actress self only fell for bad boys. Like Jet. And Zuko.

She felt tears prick at her eyes and it made her scowl at her own foolishness. She was not going to let Zuko see her cry. Not again. So she might as well get this over with.

"Aang thought there was some bad stuff about me," she said, casting her eyes down. She watched the water roll in and out around her legs.

He was silent for so long that she had to look back up to check for his reaction. He was giving her a funny look. "Was it the part where-" he began slowly.

"Yeah," she said quickly, interrupting him before he could say it out loud. She couldn't have handled him saying it out loud. "That and how my actress self said he was like a brother to me." She kicked her foot into the wet sand below her. The water didn't splash like she wanted it to. She just stubbed her toe. "At intermission he asked me if that's how I really felt and if we would ever be together. I told him I didn't know and that I was confused. He was so upset and then…" she paused briefly.

"And then?" Zuko prompted.

"Then he kissed me," she said, blushing in the dark.

"Oh," Zuko said. He paused like he was trying to decide what to say next. "Um, did you want him to?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "No. Not really. But it…wasn't the first time. He's kissed me before. The day of the Black Sun Invasion. That time it was fine. Then there was another time before that, but we were in a cave, and we were trapped by all these rocks…" She wrung her hands nervously.

He waited for her to continue.

"This is stupid," she said, suddenly feeling incredibly ashamed. "I shouldn't have told you any of this. You're upset because your nation sees you as a traitor and wants you dead. I'm upset because I have boy problems. I'm such an idiot."

"You were okay with him kissing you a month ago but you're not okay with it now?" Zuko asked, ignoring her anxiety. "What changed?"

She tried not to let her mouth hinge apart. What _had_ changed? Aang still needed to defeat the Fire Lord. He still needed to master all four elements. He was still the same, really. Everything was the same. It was still her, Sokka, Toph and Aang working together to come up with a plan. And Zuko, of course. He was on their side now too.

Zuko hadn't been with them before.

Zuko who was looking at her with genuine concern on his face. Who made her feel…funny…when she held his hand. Him. He had changed things. He had come around and changed things. Like Aang, who could firebend now. And like…like…

"Me," she whispered. "I'm not the same anymore."

He didn't say a word in response.

"I knew I shouldn't have said anything," she said quietly, more to herself than to him. "I should have talked to Suki or something. You wouldn't know about this stuff. You've probably never even kissed a girl." She didn't really mean for that last part to come out. Maybe she was the one who didn't have a filter.

Zuko made a stifled, strangled noise.

Katara's eyes widened. He blushed so hard she could see it in the dark. Her eyes widened further. He shifted his weight awkwardly in the water. His nonverbal communication was telling her more than she needed to know.

"Oh," she said, the realization of what it all meant dawning on her. "Oh. Oh. No way. No. No. No."

"I'm two years older than you are!" he said. "I have a girlfriend! Or at least I had a girlfriend."

"Who?" she asked, though the minute she asked she wished she could take back the question. Why the hell would she want to know who?

"Her name is Mai," he said.

"The girl who throws the _daggers_?" Katara asked, horrified. Why was she surprised that Zuko would date a girl like that? Of course his girlfriend would be a terrifying pale chick trained in the sport of impaling people with sharp objects. "I thought she was one of Azula's friends! She almost killed me. Twice!"

"I didn't know you and Mai ever fought," he said apologetically. Which was weird, because he didn't owe her any apologies. But it was also weird that he'd…with her…

Oh spirits. She was going to need a lot more water to feel clean about that.

"Yeah," she said grumpily. "Well I didn't know you and Mai-"

Zuko cringed but got defensive. "At least I'm not the only one who has a thing for dangerous partners," he shot back.

"_Dangerous partners_?" she shrieked. "How is _Aang_ dangerous?"

"How is Aang _not_ dangerous?" he yelled. "How was _Jet_ not dangerous?"

Katara narrowed her eyes and glared hotly at him. "What do _you_ know about Jet?"

"Only that he attacked me _and_ my uncle in Ba Sing Se when we never did anything to him," Zuko said angrily. "I had to fight him and his stupid twin hooks."

She was taken aback. "I didn't know you and Jet ever fought," she said, and now she was the one with the tone that was partly apologetic and partly defensive.

"Well I didn't know you made out with him until the play."

Katara hadn't realized she was breathing hard until right then. She deflated at the slight disgust in Zuko's tone, which couldn't have been as bad as the disgust she felt about him and dagger-girl. "This was a bad idea," she said, backing away in the water with a sudden need for distance. "Sharing was a bad idea. We don't need to share to fight together. We only need to be…to know…that the other is…is…"

Her eyes met his.

He hissed out a slow breath and groaned loudly while tears began to fall from her eyes. She wiped them away feeling stupid and low. "Damn it," Zuko said, splashing closer to her. She stopped moving and stood in place because she was too emotionally drained to prevent him from getting any nearer. He stopped in front of her and started to reach out. His hands snapped back.

"Oh," he said. "Sorry. Can I…erm…hug you? I'm sorry I brought up Jet. You were already feeling bad about Aang."

She nodded and forgave him on the spot. "I shouldn't have reacted that way about Mai," she said, though the name came out a little muffled. He had thrown his arms around her while she started talking, like he'd lose the courage to do it if he didn't do it right then, and her face was temporarily smashed against his shoulder. She returned the hug reflexively, wrapping both arms around him. He was getting better at hugs. Or maybe he was just getting more comfortable with her. This felt warm and good. She sighed quietly. She didn't want to pull away. She waited for him to pull back.

He sighed and drew her in closer. They breathed in and out together. An almost inaudible hum came from his throat. It wasn't until they both had to take another breath that they stepped away from the hug.

"Have you tried to talk to Aang about what happened?" Zuko asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know how I can," she said. "What would I say to him? I don't want to upset him right when we're the on the verge of war."

Zuko looked at her like he was contemplating the problem. "What if you weren't afraid of how he would feel?" he said. "What would you tell him if you could be totally truthful with him?"

Katara bit her lip. What would she tell him? That the kiss they had on the day of Black Sun had meant something to her? That she had felt it, but that she wasn't the same person anymore? That maybe Aang could stay pure and perfect, but she wasn't a kid any more? That she was more conflicted? That she was more like Zuko these days and less like him?

"I guess our paths are diverging," she said slowly. "I still care about him, but I'm not the same person I was. I'm not the good little girl who would never hurt anyone anymore. I'm…I'm…"

Her voice was shaking. She was going to start crying again.

Zuko touched her arm. "Katara," he said quietly. "Innocent and naive get you killed in war."

"I'm _not_ innocent _or_ naive," she responded sharply. "I'm _dangerous_."

He blinked. "_I_ know that, Katara," he said. A smirk made its way across his face. "It's, um, probably why I like fighting with you as my partner so much."

His words startled her. Her response startled her even more. "I suppose that's why I like you as my fighting partner too."

Her steps were lighter on the way back. She glanced sideways at Zuko as they walked. He glanced sideways at her too.

"_Jet_?" he asked.

"_Mai_?" she said.

And they agreed silently never to talk about that again.


	8. Chapter 8 - The Five-Hundred Club II

**The Five-Hundred Club II**

**Author Notes:**

Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing.

**Season 3, Ember Island**

**A series of shorts (all 500 words or less) about how Zuko and Katara interact with each other ****after** **Katara forgives Zuko. Set between The Ember Island Players and Sozin's Comet.**

* * *

**#1 Aang - Balance**

Aang was sure this had been a good idea. But that was before Katara and Zuko teamed up against Toph. Now Toph was iced in a glacier on the beach with a ring of flames fencing her off. Aang was on his own, Toph was yelling bloody murder, and Katara and Zuko were both smirking at him.

Aang dodged water whips and almost leaned back into an explosion of fire behind him.

"Come on, Aang," Katara taunted. Her arms were wrapped in water that snaked out in sharp bites. "You couldn't take on a sea slug this way."

"Sloppy, Aang," Zuko scolded. There was a tease in his voice too, though. "You're lucky this isn't a real fight."

"If this were a real fight, you two would be hog monkey hash!" Aang shouted.

Katara looked at Zuko and raised her eyebrow. He grinned smugly at her. They had been circling Aang for almost an hour, forcing him to fight while they coordinated efforts. Aang tried to decipher the silent conversation taking place between his firebending and waterbending masters. Couldn't be anything good. They both moved to strike again.

"Get me out of here, Aang!" Toph screamed, but he was too busy trying not to get sliced apart by the icy disks of water flying at his torso or scorched by the hot licks of flame circling his legs.

"This isn't fair!" Aang howled. "No one said you were allowed to team up!"

"You think my father's going to fight fair?" Zuko said, relentlessly keeping up the attack.

Aang started to deflect the fire back at Zuko, but a wave of water slapped him away.

"Thanks, Katara," Zuko said, like she'd just passed him the salt.

"No problem," she said, winking. Aang scowled and reflexively blasted a current of water at her. It was broken by a gush of fire.

"Thanks, Zuko," Katara said pleasantly.

"My pleasure," he said with a slight bow.

"This is making me sick!" Toph yelled. "Twinkletoes, I'm ordering you to destroy these good-for-nothing show-offs! Use your fancy Avatar powers! Take them out!"

"I can't!" Aang whined. "My chakra's blocked and they're working together!"

"Oh oh," Zuko said, crossing his arms. "Sounds like someone's tired."

"Awe," Katara said, narrowing her eyes. "Maybe it's time for a nap."

Aang turned red. "Don't mom and dad me!" he yelled.

Katara and Zuko looked at each other again, then shrugged in unison.

"Whatever, Aang," Katara said, waving the water she'd been bending out to the sea. "It's time for lunch anyway."

"Don't get your shorts in a twist," Zuko said, extinguishing the fire around him. He walked over to Katara and nodded at her. "Nice fighting. Think Sokka was able to manage sandwiches?"

"You too," she said, smiling. "And I hope so. I'm hungry."

"I liked them better when they weren't getting along," Toph grumbled from her iceberg as the pair walked back to the house. Aang didn't say what he thought.

_Me too._

* * *

**#2 Toph - Scar**

Toph was ticked. Nothing stood in the way of a glorious scam and a perfect field trip.

Nothing, that is, except Sweetness.

"Zuko's not going to fake-turn-himself-in!" Sugar Queen said. "No matter how big the ransom!"

_Sure._ She'd already had _her_ field trip.

"Do we need money?" Zuko asked.

"No," Katara said. "Toph cheated a bunch of con artists out of theirs. We have plenty."

"It was _stolen_ money," Toph corrected. "I was just redistributing."

"Right," Katara said sarcastically.

Toph got smarter on her second try.

"Zuko and I need to borrow Appa," she told Aang at lunch.

"Why?" Aang said.

"What?" Zuko said.

"It's my bracelet," Toph said. "I left it at the Air Temple."

"Are you sure?" Aang asked.

"I'm sure!" Toph whined. She shifted toward Katara. "That bracelet was part of me. I need it."

"The space metal bracelet?" Katara asked.

_Gotcha_, Toph thought. "Yeah," she said. "It makes me think of you, Katara, because-"

"I found that this morning in the rice sack," Katara said. "Lucky. You'd have made a trip for nothing."

"Wow, I wonder how it got in there," Aang said.

"Yeah," Toph muttered, "I wonder."

The third time, Toph waited until Zuko was alone before cornering him in the courtyard.

"Hey Zuko," she said. "Could you take me into town? I want to do something for Katara. She does so much for us, you know?"

"Uh," Zuko said.

"She likes girly things," Toph continued. "I want to get her a hair comb, but I need someone to help me pick one that's pretty."

"Um," Zuko answered.

"Please?" Toph begged. "For Katara?"

"I'd like to," he said finally. "But I can't."

"Why?" Toph cried.

"What's going on?" Sokka asked, joining with the rest of the group. Toph scowled.

"I'm trying to get Zuko out," she sulked. "But he won't even take me into town."

"He can't," Sokka said. "Not in daylight anyway."

"Why not?" Toph yelped. "Can't we go in disguise?"

Silence filled the courtyard. Zuko turned to leave. Sickness crept through Toph.

Katara stopped Zuko.

"She doesn't know," Katara said. "She can't see."

"See what?" Toph asked.

"Zuko's scar," Katara said. "It covers the left side of his face."

Toph stood still, the sickness overwhelming her. Suddenly, field trips didn't seem important. "Why didn't anyone tell me?" she asked angrily. "I would have understood!"

"It's too ugly to talk about," Zuko said harshly.

"That's not true," Katara said.

"Yes it is," Zuko said.

"_No_, it's _not_," she said. "We don't _talk_ about it because when we look at you we don't _see_ it. We see you, someone who was our enemy and isn't anymore."

The next day, Zuko cornered Toph. He handed her something small.

"For Katara," he said. "It's pretty. I think she'll like it. I found it in the house, in the room Uncle's wife used to stay in. I'm sorry I couldn't go into town."

Toph gave it to Katara. She didn't feel so ticked off anymore.

* * *

**#3 Suki - Secret**

Sokka had an endearing way of humming whenever Suki nipped his ear. It made her giggle.

"What?" he teased in a low, husky voice, sliding his hands up her back under her shirt.

"Nothing," Suki said playfully, squeezing his biceps. "Glad we found this place, though."

"Yeah," Sokka said between kisses. "Great attic."

Their mouths were engaged in a joust when the door to their hideout opened. They both froze.

"This is it," they heard Zuko say.

"It's dark," they heard Katara say. Fire wove through the abandoned space, lighting torches on the walls. Suki was sitting in Sokka's lap, her legs wrapped around his waist. Sokka pulled her close as the fire flashed by. Fortuitously, the alcove they sat in was hidden from view by a dusty dressing screen.

"Much better. Thanks Zuko!" Katara said brightly. Suki could almost hear Zuko's face light up with that almost-but-not-quite-smiling expression he made whenever Katara was pleased with him these days. Sokka rolled his eyes. Suki rolled hers back. He leaned in to suck quietly on her neck.

"Let's see…you need cooking supplies, right?" Zuko asked Katara.

"Pots and pans," Katara answered. Suki could hear them walking deeper into the attic. They stopped somewhere and began rummaging through boxes. Sokka lapped at Suki with his tongue and she stifled a moan. There was something appealing about the possibility of getting caught that made her body tingle. She stretched, arching her chest as Sokka's hands glided mischievously down her bottom.

"Are you sure no one will mind if we use these things?" Katara was asking.

"Who would care? My father?" Zuko scoffed.

"I don't know. Maybe your mother would be upset."

Zuko mumbled something. Suki missed it. Sokka was doing things that made her wiggle in his lap. She started to hiss "stop" but he covered her mouth and shook his head. Her hands traveled, seeking revenge. Sokka groaned silently, dropping his head into her shoulder.

"What did you say?" Katara asked.

Zuko hesitated before answering. "Sorry," he said. "Just my mom would have wanted me to help someone like you."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Nothing bad!" Zuko stumbled. "Only you're so good at everything but you're also a really good person. She would have liked you."

Suki was distracted enough to stop the heavy petting. Sokka was not. He started tickling her and she bucked convulsively. The bench creaked. Oh no.

Everything went silent. Then Suki heard Katara laugh. She breathed out in relief.

"Do you want me to stay up here with you?" Zuko teased. Suki could picture the way they must have both stopped.

"Thanks," Katara said, continuing to laugh. "But I have enough company already, don't you think?"

Suki's stomach turned.

"Probably," Zuko said flippantly.

"Hey!" Sokka yelled. "How did you know?"

"Please, Sokka," Katara called. "You breathe heavier than a hippo horse."

"Not to mention we saw you go up the stairs," Zuko added.

Suki groaned. So much for a secret hideout.

* * *

**#4 Sokka - Prank**

"Oh, man, Katara's gonna _kill_ us," Sokka said gleefully.

"Maybe you," Toph said. "She'll never catch me."

"Aang, hurry up! We need you to carry the fire frogs."

"Hold your ostrich horses, Sokka," Aang said. "Zuko's still coming. And why do I have to carry the frogs?"

Sokka tapped his foot. "You're the one with frog-carrying experience, Aang," he explained as they waited. Sokka was pissed. Zuko was holding up the mission.

"Sorry," Zuko said when he caught up. "Katara needed help putting away the dishes."

Sokka shared a look with Aang before they all started laughing. Toph clutched her tummy.

"What?" Zuko asked.

"Oh nothing," Sokka answered. "Just my baby sister has you wrapped around her little finger."

Zuko blushed but didn't blink. "I like helping Katara," he said.

"Sure you do, pal," Sokka said, pounding his newest buddy on the back. "And that's exactly what she wants." He pointed down the path to the beach. "Come on. Suki can only distract her for so long. We have to hurry."

"What are we doing again?" Zuko asked as they went.

"A _prank_," Sokka explained. "You know, a time-honored tradition between older brothers and younger sisters, in which the brother does something hilarious at the expense of the sister."

"You're trying to annoy Katara on purpose?" Zuko asked incredulously.

"Yep," Sokka said.

"And we're going to do it with _fire frogs_!" Aang said enthusiastically. "In her _bed_!"

Zuko stopped in his tracks. "What?"

"You're a slow learner, aren't you?" Toph asked.

Zuko did not continue. "I'm not _that_ slow," he said. "And I value my life. You three are on your own. I'm going back."

"You can't!" Sokka yelped as Zuko turned around. "You're sworn to secrecy!"

Zuko trudged away anyway.

"Are we still getting the frogs?" Aang asked.

"Oh yeah," Sokka said, rubbing his hands together evilly. "We're getting them, and we're making this prank _epic_!"

The next morning, Sokka woke up early, anticipating the fruits of his labor about to ripen. Aang was already awake, but not a single shriek greeted them. They crept out of their room to see what was up. Not one frog hopped down the hallway. They went to the girls' room. Only Toph and Suki were inside.

"Where is she?" Sokka asked.

"No idea," Suki said. "Where are the frogs?"

"No idea," Sokka said.

They went back into the hall. Zuko's room was empty too: of frogs and fire princes. Sokka scratched his head. The kids went down to the kitchen.

Zuko and Katara were eating breakfast.

"Good morning," Katara said pleasantly, pushing four covered bowls of porridge toward them.

"Hey guys," Zuko said, lifting a spoon to them.

Sokka took his bowl. Nice of Katara to keep the porridge warm. He lifted the cover off…

…and Katara's nose twitched…

…and a fire frog hopped at Sokka's face.

He screamed.

"Wow Sokka," Zuko said when all the frogs were out of the covered porridge bowls. "You were right. Pranks _are_ hilarious."

* * *

**#5 Katara - Trade**

Katara stretched and heard her joints pop. She'd worked hard. Practicing with Aang was never like this. Every muscle in her body ached.

She drew water from the fountain and pressed a healing hand to her shoulder. She sighed heavily in relief.

"Not fair," a tired voice said.

Zuko. He was flopped down on the ground. It thoroughly satisfied Katara to know he'd finished their sparring session as drained as she.

She laughed and continued healing herself. Zuko watched, the expression on his face transforming from jealousy to longing to puppy dog eyes.

The Prince was giving her _puppy dog eyes_.

She ignored him. He scowled, sat up straight, narrowed his eyes and began to rub his own neck. She watched as a faint red glow appeared under his hand. Of course. He was a firebender.

She began imagining hot springs, hot saunas and hot stone massages. The spot between her shoulder blades throbbed. She tried futilely to reach it. He caught her eye and smirked.

"Care to negotiate a trade?" he asked. A memory of Zuko and a band of pirates surfaced in Katara's mind. She stood up…

…and sat down behind him.

"Neck and shoulders only," she said sternly.

Zuko nodded and relaxed as she placed her hands tentatively on his warm skin and focused the cool water on his muscles.

"Should have thought of this before," he murmured while she worked.

"That good, huh?" she grinned.

"That good," he agreed. She rewarded the complement by moving in smooth strokes down his spine. If he noticed her breaking her own rules, he didn't say anything. But after a while, he swiveled to face her. "Your turn," he said mildly.

A pinch of anxiety in her stomach made her hesitate, but she pushed it away like she'd pushed away the bad memory of him, rotating her body and sweeping her hair out of the way. She waited for his hands to make contact.

"Tell me if it gets too hot," he said. The heat seeped into her twisted muscles. She hummed softly.

"Too much?" he asked, his voice gravely in her ear.

She shook her head no, savoring the warmth.

He began kneading the muscles, finding knots and working them out with his thumbs.

"You don't have to…ahh…ahhhhh," she said as he found the twisted spot between her shoulder blades.

She almost heard him grin. She didn't protest further. When he was done, he patted her shoulders lightly and she turned to face him. They were sitting close. Her head felt dizzy.

He smiled shyly. It had never occurred to her before, but Zuko was sort of cute when he smiled.

"We should do this every time we spar," he said.

"We should spar _just_ so we can do this," she said. His smile spread to his eyes.

"Sure," he said. "Let's keep it a secret, though."

"Why?" she asked.

He shrugged sheepishly. "Not sure I want to rub Toph's feet."

She laughed. "Deal, Zuko."

* * *

**#6 Zuko - Destiny**

Zuko lay on his back, staring up at suncatchers hanging from the canopy. They reminded him of the Sun Warriors. Maybe Uncle had brought them back as souvenirs from his visit.

"I wondered where you'd gone," a gentle voice said from the doorway.

Katara.

When Zuko didn't answer, she came into the room.

"Was this your uncle's?" she asked.

"Yeah," Zuko sighed. "Back when my family still came here together."

"Want company?" she asked.

_Only because it's you_, he thought, scooting to make room on the bed. She'd gotten under his skin. Somehow she knew things he didn't tell her. Somehow it didn't feel intrusive for her to lie next to him, put her hands behind her head, and look up at the suncatchers with him.

Somehow it was okay for him to say: "Uncle loved Ember Island. We always came in the summers, even after his son died."

"I didn't know he had a son," Katara said.

"Yeah," Zuko said. "If the world worked like it was supposed to, Uncle would be Fire Lord instead of my father, and his son would be next in line for the throne. Not Azula."

"I thought you were next," Katara said.

"Not anymore," Zuko said.

Silence stretched out between them.

"This game never works," Katara said after a while.

"What game?" Zuko asked.

"The 'if' game," Katara said. "Like what if Aang hadn't been trapped in an iceberg for a hundred years?"

"Then things wouldn't have gotten so out of hand," Zuko said.

"Or he would have been killed with the other air nomads," Katara countered.

"Well, you have to go back further," Zuko said. "Like what if my great grandfather Sozin hadn't let Avatar Roku die?"

"Then we wouldn't have met Aang," Katara said.

"No," Zuko said. "We'd have met him. He would just have been older than us. And the Southern Water Tribe would have thrived."

"I guess I'd be the Southern Water Princess, then," Katara said thoughtfully. She laughed. "I'd live like Princess Yue in the North. With fancy dresses and guards and big parties to celebrate my birthdays."

Zuko snorted. "And probably an arranged marriage to a bona fide prince for the sake of a political alliance," he said.

Katara stilled next to him.

"What?" Zuko asked, looking sideways at her.

She smiled crookedly. "Well there you go," she said, sitting up briskly and hopping off the bed. "Things always happen for a reason."

"I don't think arranged marriage would be so bad," Zuko said, sitting up too and watching her go. "If you'd grown up thinking it was your duty."

Katara stopped and looked back at the doorway. "But think, Zuko," she grinned. "What bona fide prince do you suppose I'd be engaged to right now?"

Zuko blinked.

"See," she said. "I told you this game never works. Destiny knows what it's doing."

And with that she flitted out the room.

"It wouldn't have been _that_ bad!" Zuko yelled after her.

"Speak for yourself!" she called back.


	9. Chapter 9 - Goodbye

**Author Notes:**

This is Katara and Zuko's goodbye to each other, and this is my goodbye to this little fic.

To those of you who wanted a kiss: I'm sorry. I did too. I love Zuko and Katara together. But I wanted this series to reflect their friendship more than their romance and also to be canon compliant. Apologies Zutarians!

Luckily, I do have romance to offer. In fact, I have two Zutara romance fics. If you're interested, Another Word for Alchemy is my continuation of the Zutara story. It's set five years in the future from the end of this series. If you need more immediate gratification, then check out Kiss Me to Safe, my alternative Zutarian finale fic. Lots of kissing in both.

To those of you who followed, favorited and reviewed this series: thank you very very much. I hate asking people to read and review. I'm old school. I think a writer should write because she loves to write and has a story to tell, not because she expects anyone to read her story. But still…I love it when people read and review. So thanks again. ;)

Disclaimer: ATLA is of course not mine. I'm just borrowing.

Now for the goodbye…

* * *

**Season 3, Sozin's Comet - Avatar Aang**

**Several weeks after Fire Lord Ozai's defeat, the kids get ready to say goodbye and move on.**

In a different world, Katara doesn't feel queasy whenever she sees Zuko kiss Mai. He is free to kiss anyone he wants. It's not like she ever wanted him to kiss _her_. She just doesn't understand this relationship. The Zuko she knows wouldn't be with a girl who can't even stay awake through dinner. The Zuko who kisses Mai nudges his girlfriend and snickers when her head pops back up.

"Sorry," Mai says in her slow, drawling voice while she blinks her eyes lazily. "I guess the barbaric practice of ice dodging just doesn't capture my attention."

Sokka looks affronted while Mai leans against Zuko, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Do you want me to start from the beginning again?" Sokka asks.

"No," Mai says. She closes her eyes and nuzzles into Zuko. He laughs and wraps his arm around her. Aang laughs too. Katara looks down and stirs her soup.

"Do you guys really have to leave tomorrow?" Zuko asks. His gaze is on her, his eyes pulling hers up. She stirs more, resisting.

"We've been in the Fire Nation most of the summer," Suki says. "We can't stay forever."

Suki means she wants to go home. To Kyoshi Island. Sokka is going with her, but just for a little while. Then in the fall, he's returning to the Fire Nation to enroll in an elite military training academy. Master Piandao highly recommended it and General Iroh seconded the choice. Katara's father is proud. Sokka hides his own pride, but talks about the material he's going to use to make his next sword. The academy is close to the Caldera.

Zuko turns to Sokka. "Your room is already set up," he says. Zuko pretty much demanded that Sokka spend his weekends off at the Fire Palace. "The servants have orders to keep it stocked with jerky and fire flakes at all times."

"Oh man, my classmates are gonna be so jealous when they find out I practice swordsmanship with the Fire Lord," Sokka says brightly. He and Zuko have already started practicing in the courtyard in the mornings.

"Don't get any dumb ideas," Zuko says. "I can still kick your ass."

"But not as easy as before."

"Not as easy," Zuko admits.

In a different world, Katara isn't jealous of the time Sokka and Zuko will have together while she and Aang go off and do whatever Avatars do in a time of peace.

"Still think Katara's scarier than me?" Sokka asks Zuko.

Katara looks up suddenly. Sokka and Aang are both laughing - it must be an inside joke. Zuko catches her eye and smiles warmly at her. It's his smile for her. She knows it by the layers of emotion veiled behind his eyes. When he smiles like that, warmth oozes inside her and spreads thick under her skin. This is the Zuko she knows.

"Much," Zuko says. His voice is layered like his eyes. He holds her gaze until she blinks away.

"Duh," Mai says, opening her eyes and smiling genuinely at Katara. Mai doesn't normally grace anybody but Zuko with a smile. Katara has noticed that she is also an exception to the rule. It should make her want to like Mai, but for some reason she can't get past Zuko kissing her. "Katara's a bad ass bitch."

"Don't call her that!" Sokka says.

"That's the highest complement I give," Mai says. The Zuko who kisses Mai squeezes Mai's shoulder and kisses the top of her head.

The Zuko that Katara knows quirks his eyebrow up at her. They have secrets. She's seen him at his worst. He's seen her at her worst. But they have also seen each other at their best. He knows her inside and out, and he's reminding her.

Katara's queasy stomach tenses and she thinks she is going to be sick. She tries to smile back amicably. "Thanks," she says. She excuses herself early from dinner not long after. Her soup is mostly uneaten.

* * *

In a different world, Zuko doesn't want to smack Aang for not following Katara. The childish monk just watches his girlfriend go. She's like a strange thought he observed during a meditation. Notice it. Identify your feelings toward it. Let it float away. Though Katara doesn't exactly float away from dinner. She nearly runs.

Sokka looks at Aang. "What's up with her?" he asks.

Aang looks mystified and shrugs. Sokka turns his glance to Zuko and for some reason Zuko's palms start to sweat.

"She doesn't want to leave," Toph says. Zuko's heart tightens in his chest. Toph has an uncanny ability to know things. "She probably doesn't know what she'll do with herself when she doesn't have to pretend to be everyone's mom anymore."

Zuko frowns. Katara never, ever mothered him. Not once. She treated him like an enemy. She treated him like a jerk. She treated him like a friend. She never, ever treated him like a child.

"She can still mother me," Aang says.

It's a joke, but it's not very funny. Mai elbows Zuko and gives him a _look_. She thinks Katara's relationship with Aang is disgusting.

"Well, whatever it is, she seemed upset," Zuko says. "Someone should go find her." He looks pointedly at Aang. Aang smiles innocently back. Zuko thinks he could hold up a sign that says: "go find out what your awesome girlfriend is upset about, you idiot" and Aang would just smile and nod and keep slurping soup. Zuko grunts and starts to stand up. He ignores the sharp look Mai shoots him. He's about to say _he's_ going to find Katara when Sokka abruptly stands up and beats him to it.

Sokka is the only guy friend Zuko has. Well, of course there's Aang, but Aang seems more like a kid brother than a pal. Zuko could see himself telling someone that he and Sokka were war buddies. But Sokka's giving Zuko a strange look too. "No," he says, more to Zuko than anyone else. "She's _my_ sister. I'll go find her."

Sokka leaves. Dinner doesn't last much longer. Zuko takes Mai back to his old room. He's still sleeping there while the Fire Lord's chambers (his chambers now) are renovated. Mai will stay late again tonight. The servants will whisper, but the gossip always stays within palace walls.

In a different world, Zuko doesn't think about Katara when Mai flops onto his bed. But in this world, Mai brings Katara up herself.

"I don't understand what she sees in that kid," she says to Zuko. "She's smart, gorgeous, tough-as-nails, and a million times more mature than he is. Why bother with a twelve-year-old?"

"I thought he was thirteen," Zuko says. He's taking his hair out of his top knot.

"Who cares? She'll be fifteen in a couple months," Mai says. She rolls over onto her stomach and widens her eyes at him. "Zuko, she'll be old enough to get _married_ in two years and he'll barely have _whiskers_ to shave."

Zuko cringes, but it's not just because he's imagining Katara and Aang getting married in two years. It's because he's mentally calculating how old he will be then. It's because his girlfriend is stretched out casually on his bed, and he's thinking about how two years from now, Katara will be old enough to marry _him_. "Aang and Katara will make more sense later," he says. He wishes he could burn the thought of marrying Katara from his mind.

"How?" Mai says. "The Avatar is a goodie goodie. Katara's much more interesting. She's darker than the Avatar, you know?"

Zuko knows. But he's suddenly feeling defensive of Katara anyway. "Katara's not dark," Zuko says, and he's trying not to scowl. He attempts to bite his tongue but doesn't quite manage to catch it in time. "She's good, Mai. She's one of the best people I know."

Mai sits up. She's giving him that sharp look she gave him at dinner. "Maybe she _is_ perfect for the Avatar, then," she says evenly, narrowing her eyes.

Zuko turns from her because he doesn't know what his face might give away if he doesn't.

"Not a drop of moral ambiguity between them, huh?" Mai continues. Her tone has becoming frightening. Zuko doesn't respond. He hears Mai get up and feels her come behind him. She sweeps her hands over his chest and breathes into his ear. "Personally, I like a little moral ambiguity, don't you?" she asks.

Zuko can't answer because of where Mai's hands have slipped. He lets Mai take over, and what she does drowns out the doubt beating in his heart.

* * *

In a world in which brothers and sisters mean something to each other, Sokka stands outside his sister's room and knocks on the door. When she doesn't answer, he puts his ear to the door and listens. The door is too thick for this kind of brotherly spying, so he sighs and opens it without her permission.

Katara is lying on her bed, staring up at the canopy. He knows she sees him, but she doesn't say hello. He walks in and sits down on a chair next to the bed. Mostly, Sokka prides himself on being the funny member of their group. Now it's only him and Katara, though, and he's pretty sure funny isn't the way to go with this. He sits in silence with her until tears start coming down her face and she rolls onto her side away from him.

He leans over and rubs his little sister's back. He doesn't know exactly why she's upset, but he has a few good guesses.

"You could still go back to the South Pole with Dad," he says after a while. "If you're homesick."

She sniffles. His first theory is wrong. He thought as much.

"You could go to the North Pole and work on your bending," he tries again.

"Pakku's in the South Pole," she says. "And Aang needs me."

His second theory is wrong too. "I know," he says. He's thinking of a way to test his third theory. "But Aang could go with you there. It might make you feel better to have some guys to beat up, and there are plenty of jerks in the North Pole."

Tears again. He's getting warmer.

"Who knows, there might even be someone up there who deserves the not-as-big-of-a-jerk-as-you-could-have-been award."

She whimpers out pathetically: "That's Zuko's medal."

"Yeah," Sokka laughs lightly, "I guess it is."

Katara isn't laughing, though. She's curled up into a little ball like she's in agony, confirming his third theory. He's not sure how she'll react, but he decides to ask her about it. Maybe it will make her feel better to get it off her chest.

"Katara," he says, when there's a lull in the crying, "I know you care a lot about Aang, but do you maybe have feelings for Zuko too?"

She gasps and splutters. "No!" she spurts out. "I don't think of him that way. He has a girlfriend!"

Sokka's more clever than he appears. He raises his eyebrows. "Okay, but if he didn't have a girlfriend?"

"He does have a girlfriend."

"What if he didn't?"

Katara doesn't answer. Sokka smiles grimly. If he were doing anything but talking to his sister about her feelings, he'd probably have jumped up and yelled "nailed it!" Instead, he tries to give her time to sort it out.

"He's the Fire Lord," she says after a while. "Even if he didn't have a girlfriend, he couldn't date someone from the Southern Water Tribe."

Sokka tries not to laugh. "Katara," he says. "He's the Fire Lord. He can date whoever the hell he wants."

"He's Zuko. He's the kind of person who chases the Avatar halfway around the world because he's trying to restore his honor," Katara argues. "An honorable Fire Lord doesn't date a Water Tribe peasant."

"He's Zuko," Sokka counters. "He's the kind of person who leaves home to join the Avatar and asks a Water Tribe _princess_ to help him defeat his own sister. Honestly, Katara, if he wanted you to be his girlfriend, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't let stupid politics get in the way."

Katara looks at him like she's been stricken and then starts to sob again. Sokka is stunned for a minute before he realizes what he just implied. He's really done it now. He climbs onto the bed and puts his arm around his sister so she can cry into his shoulder. "That wasn't what I meant," he says, trying to calm her down. "Except about you being a princess. That I meant."

"It doesn't matter," she sobs. "He doesn't want me to be his girlfriend. He doesn't even think of me that way. I'm just the girl he fights with. I _scare_ him."

From the way the tears are soaking through his tunic, Sokka thinks this might be more than just a little crush. Some part of him is thrilled. Everyone has been talking about Aang and Katara behind their backs, but Sokka's secretly weirded out by the idea. Aang's like a brother to him and Katara. The idea of them dating gives him the oogies. Zuko's more like a comrade or an ally. When he thinks of Katara with Zuko, he's totally cool with it.

Anyway, Sokka has a theory about Zuko, too. He's caught the guy staring at his sister one too many times. "Believe me, Katara," Sokka says. "Zuko's the type that _wants_ to be terrified by his girlfriend. Why else would he be dating one of Azula's best friends?"

Katara makes a little sound of partial agreement. It's an improvement over the sobs.

"Look," Sokka says. "I think you should give Zuko time. We've all been through a lot recently, and this probably isn't the time for new relationships anyway."

"I know," Katara sighs. "I keep telling myself it's dumb to feel so hurt. There are plenty of other guys out there."

Sokka squeezes her shoulders. "Ahh…don't give up on jerkface."

Katara finally laughs. "You really don't want me to date Aang, do you?" she asks.

Sokka shudders. "Please don't," he says. "That would be so weird."

She just laughs again.

Sokka leaves her room much later feeling like he's done his brotherly duty. On his way back to his own room, he sees Zuko walking down the hall.

"Going somewhere?" Sokka says.

Zuko turns a little red. "Just walked Mai to the door," he says, referring to the front door of the _palace_ like it's the front door of his house. Which, of course, it is. But what is he doing _here_? Zuko's chambers are in an entirely different wing. The only reason he'd come back this way is if he wanted to find one of his guests. Sokka doesn't need to be a mind-reader to know who. He crosses his arms and stands blocking Zuko from moving any farther down the hallway.

"Let me guess," Sokka says. "You're here for a late-night healing session with my sister."

Zuko blushes scarlet red. "I just wanted to talk to her," he stammers. He nods toward the door to Katara's room. He must have seen Sokka leave. "She seemed upset at dinner. I was worried."

Sokka gives Zuko a hard stare. Zuko gives him a hopeful look, like maybe Sokka will tell him something about Katara that will make this easier on everyone. Sokka is torn. If he lets Zuko talk to Katara, things could be said that shouldn't be said right now. If he doesn't let Zuko talk to her, there are things that should be said that might never be.

"You have a girlfriend, Zuko," Sokka says after a while, looking his buddy straight in the eyes.

Zuko looks taken aback. "I didn't think…I wasn't going…I didn't want…" he sputters. He gives up under Sokka's hard stare and looks away. But then he squares his shoulders and looks straight back. "Look, Katara doesn't think of me like that," he says. "She has Aang. And I would die before I'd do something that would make her or Aang not trust me. But even so, I care about her and I want to make sure she's okay."

It's as good as a confession in Sokka's book, but Zuko's a moron. His sister is a moron too. They're both morons. Sokka steps closer to Zuko and leans in. Best buddy or not - moron or not - he's about to warn Zuko that he'd damn well better not hurt his sister or he will sic the entire tribe on Zuko's ass - and then the door to Katara's room opens.

Zuko and Sokka freeze. It looks almost like Sokka's about to kiss Zuko, and everyone, including Katara, takes a step back. "Um, am I interrupting something?" Katara says, giggling nervously. Sokka scowls but Zuko just smiles. Morons. Both of them.

"Hey," Zuko says. "I was just coming to find you." He steps closer to Sokka's sister.

Sokka huffs, but Zuko and Katara have entered their own little world. They're doing that thing they they do when they're in it where they look at each other and tune everyone else out.

Katara smiles up at Zuko smiling down at her and it's all Sokka can do not to roll his eyes at these two fools. "You found me," she says, with only a trace of wistfulness in her voice.

"Eh…I suppose no one needs me anymore, huh?" Sokka says, and when they don't even answer he slips away to find Suki.

* * *

In a world in which friendship means something to Katara and Zuko, Zuko asks Katara if she wants to take a walk.

"Since it's your last night here," he says.

Katara's smile warms even more. It makes Zuko's breath catch in his throat and he thinks it's a very good thing that she's leaving tomorrow. Otherwise, how would he be able to stand looking at her like this? How would he resist getting too close?

"That would be nice, Zuko," Katara says.

They walk through the palace. Zuko knows every hallway, but he gets them lost trying to find a hidden courtyard he knows she'll like. He's too distracted. She's too pensive to realize.

"A gold piece for your thoughts," Zuko says.

She looks at him and laughs suddenly. "A gold piece?" she says. "It's supposed to be a copper piece!"

"No it's not," Zuko says. "I've always heard gold."

"That's probably because you grew up in a palace surrounded by gold," Katara teases. "You barely understand its value."

"Oh," Zuko says, and he almost reminds her that he, too, has seen his share of hard times, but then he realizes how limited those times were and it seems petty to compare his brief brush with poverty to the destitution some people live with their whole lives. Anyway, he doesn't want to offer her a copper piece for her thoughts. Her thoughts are more valuable to him than that.

He digs in his pockets and pulls out a gold piece. "You're probably right," he says. "But still. Gold piece for your thoughts?"

She rolls her eyes and snatches the coin from him. "Honestly," she says. "I'm just down about leaving tomorrow. I'm going to miss you. A lot."

That catch thing happens in his throat again. He knows why she can't stay. But he didn't realize she would miss him. At least not enough to be this sad about it.

"I'm sad you're leaving too," he says. And then he thinks maybe he made it sound like he's sad everyone is leaving, and he wants her to understand it's more specific to her. "I mean, I'm going to miss everyone. But you especially. You more than anyone."

He trails off, now thinking he said too much. He hears the tiny puff of air that marks surprise. She stops in the hallway. He stops with her. Gravity seems to pull them closer until her shoulder brushes his arm. He looks over and there are tears. She looks up and smiles miserably.

"You're going to think all I do is cry when we're alone," she laughs, wiping her own tears.

"Yeah, well, I've done my fair share of crying with you over the last few months," he says, and then they both laugh because they're being stupid together.

"I don't want my last memory of you to be a sad one," she says.

"Who says this is your last memory of me?" he says. "It's not like you're never going to see me again."

"Yeah, but things change," she says.

"What things?" he says. "I'm pretty sure that if you come back in six months, you're still going to be able to beat me in a fight."

"I know," she says. "But that's a long time. Things change."

She's right. He knows it. In six months, she and the Avatar will have spent six months together. He'll have spent six months with Mai. Maybe when he sees Katara again, he won't feel a tight ache in his heart. Maybe when she sees him again, Aang will be taller than her.

"What do you want your last memory to be?" he asks.

She takes his hand and looks him in the eye. For one brief golden second, something flashes between them that takes him off guard. But then it's gone and she looks away like she's thinking about his question. They start walking again. That courtyard is somewhere nearby.

"What do you think we'd have done together for fun if we became friends when we weren't in the middle of a war?" she asks.

"Um…" he says. Because he has no idea. Would they even have met if there had been no war?

"Come on!" she prompts.

"We'd walk around and talk, I guess," he says.

"That's girly," she complains.

"You're a girl. And what do you think we're doing now?" He stops her at the door he's been looking for this whole time. "Ah ha," he says. "This is the courtyard I wanted you to see."

They go in and she doesn't say anything for a long time. It's the prettiest courtyard in the whole palace. That's because his mother planted everything in here herself by hand.

Katara stares at the vines of blue butter blossoms that hang down from the trellis they pass under as they walk in toward a small pond.

"They only bloom under the full moon," Zuko explains quietly.

"I know," she says.

In a different world, Zuko kisses Katara right now. He kisses her under the trellis with the blue butter blossoms floating around them and the moon not quite high in the sky and she sinks into his arms and into his soul and he tells her that he's never met anyone with a heart like hers.

In this world, she has Aang and he has Mai and there are oceans that will divide them tomorrow.

"There _is_ a place for waterbenders here," she whispers. "If I had known…"

But she doesn't finish the thought. They sit together on a bench by the pond until they can't see the moon anymore and they have to jostle each other back awake when they nod off. Before the sun comes up, they quietly walk back to their separate rooms. It is a sad memory, but it is peaceful too, and it isn't the last memory. The last memory is scheduled for decades later. It, too, involves the blue butter blossoms.

* * *

In a different world, Katara isn't leaving today. But in this world, Toph, Suki and Sokka are already up on the saddle and Aang is waving from Appa's head.

Zuko is standing with Mai. He's already said goodbye to her. They've already exchanged a quick hug. The same hug he exchanged with everyone. The same goodbye he said to everyone.

Katara's head is empty and her heart is stuffed full with emotions she doesn't understand and she is about to pull herself up on Appa when someone grabs her arm and drags her roughly back.

This is what is supposed to happen in a different world, but it's happening in this world instead. Zuko isn't standing with Mai, looking appropriately sad and appropriately hopeful at the same time. Katara isn't on the saddle, wiping tears away and waving goodbye and trying not to lose it. In this world, Zuko is right here with her, crushing her to his chest, and she's got the edges of his robes in her hands and she's clutching him to her, too, while his arms wrap tight around her and they both cry openly.

"You will never know what it meant to me that you forgave me," he says, his cheek pressed hard against her temple. "Or that you ever learned to trust me. Or that you cared enough about me to fight by side."

"I cared about you more than to fight by your side," she says. "And if you hadn't been an idiot, I'd have trusted you sooner."

He smiles. "I know," he says. "But sometimes I'm a little slow."

She smiles too. "It's okay," she says. "We got there in the end."

In this world, they have to let go. In this world, they have to move on. But they hang on tight anyway, even though everyone is watching. Even though Aang will look at her funny after. Even though Mai has her fingers on something sharp hidden in her sleeve.

"This isn't goodbye," Katara says.

"No, it's not," Zuko says.

"Friends don't ever really say goodbye," she explains.

"And we are friends, right?" he asks. "Real friends?"

She hugs tighter. He does the same. She can feel his breath on her temple. She can feel his heart beat against hers. "What's the opposite of arch-enemies, Zuko?" Katara asks.

"I don't know," he says. "Best friends?"

"That's what we are," she says. "Best friends."

"Okay," he says.

"Okay," she says.

And then they let go. And that is what they are.

Best friends.

At least for a while.

The end.

Or rather, the beginning.


End file.
